Tag Archives: tramp

Crazy Man’s Outfit

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Look at that outfit

little day-pack

bigger back-pack

side by side like a couple of tombstones

there at the head of my rack

which is the top bunk

the bigger pack swankly wearin’ my hat ~ soiled

and crummy of course

with a teen magazine centerfold of Kristen Stewart

hanging on the wall watching over

this poor old homophobic man’s outfit

all under the fucked-up asbestos ceiling of

this poor old mission

oh & there’s a sprinkler head up there too

ready to go off at the slightest sign of fire

everything I need in the world

right here &

with not a penny in my pocket

or a job to which to go

in the morning

   ho ho ho…

~

(Copyright Clyde Collins 2012)

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Mice Lost In The Maze

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It’s the latest craze

homeless men in a maze

of rumpled bunk beds

the mission dorm is full o’ bobbing heads

~

That one goes that way

this one goes this way

One goes one way

so another goes another way

~

Laborers & recovering addicts

young computer game fanatics

fat boy heart attacks

& incompacitated rack-backs

~

There’s a student or two

one has the flu

a motley crew of missionites

helps keep the mission going days & nights

~

That one goes that way

this one goes this way

One goes one way

so another goes another way

~

They’ll pray but they won’t vote

dreaming in a plastic dream boat

that won’t float forevermore

   but back on the chapel floor…

~

That one goes that way

this one goes this way

it’s the latest craze

   homeless men lost in the maze…

~

(Copyright Clyde Collins 2012)

~~~

Miracle

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 ~~~

I coughed up a pack of

Marlboros & I don’t

even smoke

~

It was another

miracle at

Crossroads Mission

~

I awoke in the

early morning darkness with

snickering sinuses

~

Put on my hiking boots without

socks & in my long-johns

headed for the latrine

~

Over the trash can

I blew my nose then

started coughing

~

Plop ~ there they were

a pack of Marlboro cigarettes

on top of the trash

~

One tramp tra-la-la

miracle

right there at the mission

~

I blamed it on the

dormitory with no air but

40 slumbering men breathing anyway…

~

(Copyright Clyde Collins 2012)

~~~

Almost high noon…

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I tap tramp trail

selfish soiled slothful ~ won’t

even do a labor job

on the horizon something better gets closer

~

Yuma ingrown

not too friendly

charitably

feeds me

~

Jesus is

the company

I seek

in my unapproachable way

~

A cute chubby little blessing

crossing the street

smiles & gives

me the time of day

~

And in the ghost town of

my mind

a hammer is heard

hitting a nail

~

The Wall Street Occupiers

& The Tea Party

have started rebuilding

Mary’s Saloon

~

Where she continues

to

serve

shots of pure grace

~

Ahhhhhhh grace

the ability

to do

good deeds

~

Down the tracks

a shrill whistle

blows &

a train approaches

~

Bringing us the next

President

of

   the United States…

~

(Copyright Clyde Collins 2012)

~~~

Pulaski at The Mission

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~~~

~~~

With a bad knee

Pulaski holed-up

at the mission

as the full-time janitor

~

When I came thru with

my bedroll

he advised me where

I should not lay it down outside

~

Not because of

hooligans

but

because of cops

~

So I stayed

at

the

mission

~

Pulaski trained me

to be

the mission’s next full-time janitor

but it never happened

~

After he left to

camp on the river

I ended-up a janitor

only on the weekends

~

I blog now

on public-library computers

on week days except Monday when

the library is closed

~

I remember Pulaski

bringing me coffee in the early morning when

on the chapel floor

I was barely awake

~

He

didn’t

have to

do that

~

But I’m

sure

glad

 he did.

~

(Copyright Clyde Collins 2012)

~~~

Raft

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by rawclyde !

~

I awake homeless

in the shadows of the night

lying on a top bunk in the corner

   of a dormitory full of snoring hacking men…

~

A beaurucrat has explained to me that

eight & a half months from now

I can start getting social security

   I’ll be 62 years old & hopefully still free…

~

An ancient Egyptian entity

breaks through, informs me

that I’m really lying on a small raft

   floating on the celestial Nile…

~

   Heading for the grand horizon of heaven…

~

(text copyright clyde collins 2012)

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