Dear Anonymous,
This is Charles again today. Told him my focus was off yesterday when I photographed him.
He says, 'Told you I'd break the camera.'
We laugh.
And though he has a place to live he spends much of his time on the streets collecting bottles and cans and distributing whatever he can find to others that may need it more.
He says to me in his sweet and wizened voice
'You know... we all the same. Black. White. From here. From there. Ain't no different in the eyes of god.'
and he lifts his eyes to the sky and points with his index finger above the gutters of the buildings.
And although I personally do not identify with a god in the sky I feel he/she is there as much as under our feet or scraped from our boots so I look at him and receive the gift of his words. I start reading the scriptures in his eyes. The holy book of his face.
He accepts the pair of new boots someone else has traded in for a coat. Says,' I like gettin' dressed up sometimes. I'll save 'em for that'.
And I think, I hope I get to see Charles dressed up someday.