The homeless vet
bums a cigarette
as he leaves the
public library,
wondering,
while he smokes it
and enjoys the small
comforting glow.
of the burning tobacco,
where he’ll go next,
to survive the blistering
cold of Chicago.
Death like a bullet
shot from a gun,
is coming for him,
and everyone,
jobless, roofless,
hopeless – thousands
just like him
in every city.
His comrades in arms,
now missing in action,
abandoned by their country.
Dead on the sidewalk,
dead in the alley,
dead on the asphalt –
the vet knows death. He’s
seen enough of it. .
The night is a war zone.
You survive or you don’t.