In this city's desert morning
sinful heat of Summers
vagabond streets eating away whats left
of joyful youth's humanity

Thin and mild mannered
tattoo novice ink
inarticulate drawings of adolescent *****
gnarly scabs / a missing tooth
walking dead in flip flops

pain clawing his expression
all loss in its translation and

Need is loud - a vagrant shout
but I have no money to give...

Young man, in his wife beater tank,
smears of dirt
his wastrel work
crawling through the black
though this morning's blinding
sobriety
forces its friendship on you
                 find a way back...

Young man, here's some breakfast
warm and steady
in the war-time melee of your stomach
empty as the shame
that must be lingering
in your pulse,

here's some shoes and water too
keep cool in this hateful heat
keep on toward home
toward mother's arms
if that's all the choice you got

survive or not.

Here's a moment kindly passing
not a dollar or a hit,
I hope you make it to the next one
and maybe another kindness will be won

in the ripples of this pond
where loss is the stone
you are sinking

below the surface deeply hidden
it's only a matter of realizing,
we are born to swim in it
we're made of lightning

when you resurface be strong and kindly
wash away the dark nightly chiding

Young man, I see this morning crying
will wake and learn
he's the only one he's fighting

human and kind and life and time
appear to be casualties
in the mind
when we mindlessly dis' & gorge on wish
for something equal,
gold and fine...

Young man, "god bless" he says
goodbye
there's nothing left to hold on to
but your soul's worth and
hearts
of those who love you

That is what you're searching
to find  

Yourself in their eyes...?