1.

Black plastic bag, no tote, no backpack

One pair of shoes, no socks, no laces

Plenty of sunshine today, no raincoat

One glove, one cold, bare hand

Toothache, no aspirin

One quarter and three dimes,

No nickels, no ones, no fives

Cracks in the sidewalk, no looking up

Lest he fall and no one will help him

2.

Another man froze to death overnight

on a sidewalk in Boulder. Science says

a gentle way to die, with his old boots on,

homeless on a hard bed. He’d slept out before

and had reason to hope he might wake up

with the sun. Without a down-filled coat

hope had no feathers.

3.

Suffer the cold to come inside. Christ

and Allah never walked hard sidewalks.

Buddha sat under a tree in kinder weather.

There’s no chapter and verse for the lonely,

the scared, the claustrophobe who hates

walls. But their blood cools and organs fade

into a silent unholy night, no star, no wise men.