Blankets and Grapefruit

It's a funny feeling you get

When someone asks you to make a phonecall

To save someone's life

And you can't.

They'd all seen this a hundred times.

And so they quickly fell back to collecting tin.

I stood in the street, trying to see a body in its last minutes.

A filthy grey dumpster somewhat blocked this miracle from me.

I tried to force myself to realize what was happening.

A man was dying fifty or so feet in front of me.

Too much dope on cold, dark, dirty-alley Sunday night.

They were filming somewhere else.

And I was left to guard tennis shoe -bought

Wood and fruits and vegetables

From cold and hungry untouchables.

And they all came to me to save him.

And I couldn't.

Eventually, they came in their ambulance and carried him away.

They seemed bored and bothered.

Everyone seemed that way.

When he was finally taken away

I handed out some blankets and grapefruit.

It was all I could do.