Enga mellom fjella

Sardine class

Sardine class

In the homeless shelter
head to toe
two feet apart when overfull
three when almost empty
we inmates toss and turn
we wail or flail
beyond your nightmares of second class
beyond your horrors of third-world class
we drown in tight tin cans.

© 2008 Kåre Enga [165.328b] 2008-11-06

Luke Warm Water refers to riding the bus as "sardine class" in one of his poems in Iktomi Uprising. Here I apply it to homeless flophouses (euphemistically called shelters). His writing is absolutely fabulous. I highly recommend the book.

ME:

Well, I got out to First Friday. Got to Zootown Brew which had their opening. Spoke with Claire, a woodcut artist and Daniel (we talked religion and spirituality). Played mahjong with Sherri, Rose and Carol. Rose gave me prompts (fingers stained black from rust, yellow from pomegranates, "man hands") so I wrote a poem. Checked in at Celtic Connection and The Break (spoke to Emily about visiting Wisdom and Jackson in the Big Hole Valley and her experience of living in Bern, Switzerland).

I had a headache all day and no energy, so I did okay.

Montana: 41º at 01:00. Dreary.

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