The Bus Stop Florist

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The bus stop florist has relocated. That is why I hadn’t seen him for a while. I saw him on Garry today, a quiet street, just two blocks south, from where I last saw him in 2020, the Covid-19 year.

He had a different product today, plastic flowers. He used to sell withered daisies and wild lilies at a bus stop mostly populated by students, that go to one of the two universities in this town.

Maybe selling is the wrong word because when I met him today he didn’t give me a price. He just thrust the flowers in my face, and of course I jumped out of the way, like any upright citizen who doesn’t want to know. It’s the government’s problem not ours, right?

He didn’t give me a price today, the same way he didn’t give me a price the last time I saw him almost two years ago. He is a beggar then. Not really, because of what happens at that bus stop.

It is next to a coffee shop, where beggars sit outside the entrance. Some are bolder. They go inside and approach you while you are in the line waiting to order. Therefore, in that context, I cannot say he is a beggar.

What prompted me to write this piece is the product. What made him switch to plastic flowers? Is he a beggar? I don’t think so because one of the internet by-products is the social media influencer.

Most of them claim to be philanthropists that help the poor. It’s called corporate begging.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang. 

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