City sidewalks are typically a morass of gum, cigarette butts, discarded flyers, chicken bones that people dropped there specifically so my dog could eat them and give me a heart attack, and unidentifiable or all-too-identifiable smells. But, as the Tumblr Sad Stuff on the Street makes clear, they are also the site of occasional moments of sad, strange visual poetry.
Sad Stuff on the Street is exactly what it says on the tin: melancholy tableaux from the sidewalks and gutters of cities across the world. It’s sort of funny and sort of inspiring; I’d love to see a creative writing class use these pictures as prompts. And it also offers a completely different view of the life of a city — like Venice Beach, Calif., where normally it’s the beaches and palm trees that get photographed, but where this headless Buddha statue also lives.
There are too many great sad images to reproduce here — 57 pages’ worth right now — so you’ll have to go check out the Tumblr yourself. It may make you see your city with new eyes. Or it may just make you move to the country to escape the crushing despondency.