I saw him on the side of the road,
on the side of the interstate exit ramp.
Maybe he was 18, definitely not 21,
tired but not yet haggard.
The moment I saw him
he wasn’t holding
his cardboard sign, though.
He had a small notebook
into which he was scribbling.
I knew what he was jotting down—
an insight.
I knew it because I was—
I am the same homeless junkie seeker.
I’m just a bit older now,
better practiced at maintaining
the façade of a normal life—
a task far less dignified
than begging and vagrancy.
Seeing him I wondered,
how many more
stretches of hell will I endure
to unearth one more insight?