Day 43 -Madonna and Child

Mother in the parking lot of the homeless shelter with her son. Today was his 10-month birthday.


I ended up standing next to them in the hallway of the recieving room. I don't know whether they were dropping off donations like me or waiting for room at the inn.

This shelter treats everyone the same.

The smell inside that room was like breathing underwater in a swamp. It made the worst foot-and-ass-and-greasy-stove institutions of my backstory seem in retrospect like the Sephora counter at Neiman's.

Nothing left but the smell, like Erika Lopez says.

I got to hold the baby for a minute. He smelled like malt-o meal and talcum powder.