It wasn’t even supposed to be a joke – I know it. He just started talking. The thought process of this man lay naked, shivering in the desolate wasteland in between human interaction and human understanding. Staggering blindly in the dark, his continuing accumulation of momentum somehow began to bring a smile to my face, for he was behind it pulling the strings.
How was it this homeless man could conquer me so easily? And what’s worse, how is it that he doesn’t even seem to realize it? How can one fight a battle if they do not know they are in it?
Was his life itself some inexhaustible cosmic joke for all to enjoy? Am I fated to suffer a fate bound to this introspective mime? This manifested laugh-track caught on repeat? Could he even see me standing here? Did he even care?
These thoughts pulled at mental coat legs, begging me to stay and ponder the mystery of the homeless man. The same man I would visit next week, and likely the one after.