An Honorable Mention

Cold hands, cold feet, walking streets, begging, empty pockets, hunger pains, depression takes over

No place to find shelter, lost jobs, lost family, drug addicts, teenage runaways, forgotten veteran's, alcoholics, broken bottles shattered, drunk, now sober

Some of the others the same, some don't even remember their names, homeless, scared, hurt, lost, unsure which road to turn

Finding a half smoked cigarette, laying between the sidewalk cracks, by the New York Times News Stand, I share it with my friend, we'd take drags, pass it back, and forth, using it up, until our fingertips burn

As we become closer friends, with lots of time on our hands, blowing snow drifts, knee deep, destine to survive long days, frostbite nights, restless, we discover an old abandoned box car train, where we make love

By the railway tracks, the heat from fire pits, in rusty trash cans, warm our hands, while we devour giant roasted marshmallows, pulling off the burnt sweet goo, from the hand carved willow sticks, my friend carved out, with his Army pocket knife

Our money, little, to none, from pitched pennies, tossed into a magician top hat, from a second hand store, charities contributed to my friend, as he played his grandfathers harmonica, on the street corners to bring life, with strife

On a dead end alley, we spot a double wide dumpster, digging inside, our bodies entangle, as we dive in head first, we laugh so hard, we cry, finding food for the next days lunches

A half eaten Domino's sausage pizza, a bag of crunched up Ruffles potato chips, day old doughnuts, a smashed box of Valentine chocolates, some scraps from someone's chicken TV dinner,

A floral bouquet of wilting yellow daisies, he hands them to me, as he kisses my trembling, swollen fingers, as he wraps his woolen scarf around my head

Digging deeper, at the very bottom of the dumpster, I find a purple heart, a Veteran's Honorable Mention, US Army, pendant

Attached, is a love letter, the ink wet, blotted, some words unclear, with smells of mildew mold, I begin to slowly read

My Love, Forever, as you fight for our country with pride, the war will soon be over, as I pray, you are safe, we shall soon be together, committed

I tear up, as I pin the purple heart onto my friends, worn out green Army jacket, a proud honorable discharged vet, wounded in action, disabled, with only one leg

As winters winds, blow, blistering our faces, our fingers, numb, chapping lips, the soles of our feet, cracking, callused, they bleed

We climb inside the dumpster, one last time, making it our home, old news papers layered, cover us, as blankets, while mouse eaten, car seats, found in a wrecked Dodge, in a junk yard, now turn into our bed

Huddled together, our bodies heat would only keep us alive, a few more hours, shivering, in below zero weather, freezing ice, a bitter cold month of January, so miserable

Sharing sad, some happy, feelings, lost memories, a couple of crinkled black and white photos, from childhoods past, while oxygen lessons, times lapse

Just one more breath, one last kiss, we gasp, as the snow flies, two weeks go by, and an older gentleman, with a long white braided beard, hunch backed, wearing a green Army jacket, discovers the dumpster

Looking inside, to his dismay, shocked, with sickened feelings, he cringes at the sight, the two of them, now frozen to death, in times expiration

He reaches down, weeping, with freezing tears, as he reads the tightly gripped love letter, taken from her iced cycled, paralyzed hand, the frosted over purple heart, still pinned on to his identical jacket, as he reads

To a Veteran of the US Army, most honorable mention