LIFE IN PORTLAND

Like most cities, Portland is experiencing the cold grip of the COVID-19 virus. Just yesterday, we set a new death record. But people must somehow go on. Some of them are living on our streets and surrounding areas in tents. I have endeavored to document a little of this but have tried to preserve the anonymity and privacy of these real people.

The City had announced that they had swept the camps in the Laurelhurst area, and indeed, there were many fewer people than before. Here is what I saw.

The street is less crowded and people from the city were actually helping some people pack their things.

We almost missed this little fellow because he fit so well into his surroundings as he lay basking in the late autumn sunlight. We think he lives just across the way.

Mobility seems to be very much on this man's mind. His most featured possessions are a baby buggy, a wheel chair, and a bicycle.

Just a couple of small bites of life for these folks. The canning was successful but the tent looks like it won't weather many more storms. And the boot ---

And while these people eek out their existence, life continues to go on for others, although in a very socially-altered way.

This man walks alone and wears a mask.

While friends chat, a couple strolls together

And a family glories all-unknowing in a beam of light,

All in the shadows of trees that have stood since long before they were born

And the rhododendrons dance in the autumn sunlight.