The Bus Stop Florist
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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