not typical for your average psychiatric social worker.  The man had come in to the ER with some vague medical complaints,  hoping to get admitted to the hospital. Unfortunately for him,  his problems proved to be too fixable, not up to the powers of modern medicine.  This was depressing as he was kind of a feeble old guy.  Not really able to defend himself on these mean streets and having nowhere else to go, he had been staying at the rattiest, most drug, crime and vermin-infested homeless shelter in town.  You know the one they all talk about, the one the mayor has been threatening to shut down for years but never will because it would mean dumping hundreds of homeless back into the open streets without the political will for a tax hike to pay for new shelters (I mean look how much the new stadium is costing!)

honey in the hive –
we keep pouring even knowing
there’s a hole

Anyway, this old guy – the last thing he said to me as I shook my head in the negative to his pleading to be admitted,  was that he thought he had pending charges, out of county.  Sir,  I said,  why not just turn yourself in and go to jail.  Then you’d have food, shelter, clothing, TV and healthcare, all at taxpayer expense. He considered for a moment,  rolling over in his mind the likelihood of surviving for many more nights on the increasingly cold streets and shelters, and agreed he’d surrender to police.  A quick check with the police (one of the calmest 911 calls I have ever made) revealed this to be so and just like that,  he had the cuffs clapped on him and a big smile on his face.

the old wolf
settles down with the thrown bone
–moonset

Eric A. Lohman