He was a
taller and
much thinner
black bearded
roommate
in the place
I went
when I could not face
reality.
He snorted,
coughed, and hacked
while I tried to sleep.
Someone once
told me
that he didn’t shower
because beneath his beard
and sweat stained Tee
there were some
painful burns.
I do not know his name.
Still,  I hope he found
some semblance of peace
that even I have
yet to claim.

Older man
in the same facility
fifty to sixty something,
walking with a slight
spinal curve
and wearing his
cleanly pressed black button up shirt
along with his folded at the seams
to tight blue jeans,
seams normal enough,
but I hear him sing
Conway Twitty’s
“That’s My Job”
constantly.
Somebody told me
when he was younger
he watched his father
plant his face
on a cold metal rail
and let a train
smash out
his brains.

Farther back
when I was barely seven
I knew a sweet long haired man
who wore a dress
and pushed
an empty stroller.
He could have been
transgender then,
but I did not have
the experience to know
or desire to classify
or judge him.
Twenty years later
with seventy-five miles
between me and that city
I met a stranger
who came from there.
Jokingly to prove
I was from the same place,
I mentioned that man.
She gave me a name
that I had never asked for,
told me that he
was a veteran
from one of those
horrible wars,
and that Jet
had died a while ago.

I knew an angry lady,
violent, frustrated,
face curled in rage
because she hated
some unexplained pain.
She taught me
to love music
but despite the sweet
and safe melodies
of those old time songs
we both used to move to
I can still feel
the fear, and swollen skin,
the loneliness, and hurt
that she buried within.
She was as I am now
living but broken.