Hello, my name is Oliver Poignant the day I became homeless, my family and I, we had just moved into a large white house, inside and out. Made of wide wood planks, real stonewalls, and not plaster of some kind, with a large cement front porch the width the front of the house. Every room large with plenty of room to have personal space, not like the two bedroom apartment near the airport we had just left. We had moved into a much better neighborhood.  

It was the day my mother and I parted way in points of view and the place we both lived. The day of final decisions started early, it was summer, and I was getting my self-ready for the Neighborhood Youth Core job I had landed through the help of my school counselor.  My mom found one cause after another to beat me with a belt or a switch made out of a dogwood tree branch she found just outside the back door porch. My mom for years by then had a habit of believing only what she thought was true. On this day each time there came a question of telling the truth, each time I told her the absolute true, I was beaten until I agreed to whatever she was saying.  

When at last, after the 5th  beaten and fifth disagreement, with the last coming by as I was setting my alarm clock to get up in time the next morning.  For me this adventure was the most important to me as it was my first job I had got on my own.

My brother Bill, five years younger than me, he had asked me to do something for him. I was not trying to ignore his request of me. I only want him to wait ten to twenty minutes more so I could set the right time to the alarm clock. However, before I finish with the clock my mom, heard my brother’s cry thinking that I had hurt him or something of the kind, she came in with the huge switch.

She laid into me without asking what happen, all the while she yelled for me to confuse to something that did not happen. I don’t remember if she even sought out the truth or did she ever say she cared.

The moment my mom stopped beating me I told her, “I am leaving home, I can’t take this any more. I am tired of betting beaten for telling the truth.”