Death of a Nobody

Cara led me & the cop down
to the guy in a sleeping bag under a bush

He hasn't moved in a couple of days said Cara
I think maybe he's dead

The cop walked up to him shouting
Poked with a boot, he moved all in one piece

Looks like natural causes the cop said into the radio
He probably just went to sleep & never woke up

When I was a kid I was terrified of that
Now I think lucky man

Are there any prayers for dead winos?
God, maybe he was yours more than mine

But let's not argue about that
For a couple of days nobody wondered

about an old guy sleeping out in the rain
I don't know what you owed him, Lord

But I owed him better than that
& neither of us did any too damn good here

This damn poem is neither a sandwich
or a quart of supermarket vodka

All of the world's literature
wouldn't keep a mouse alive for a minute

This damn poem isn't even big enough
to fold up into a paper rain hat