Three Strikes

Come now, gather 'round as we count the

ways: homeless, drug-addicted and now

vulnerable to the dread coronavirus. Your

luck in life appears to have run fairly thin.

On the good news side there are many fine

people dedicated to seeing that you get on

with life. Not life as most know it of course

but your life, the life you have somehow or

other managed to choose out of a vast

multitude of directions of which you chose

this one. Not that it has been satisfying for

you to daily face the elements that housing

would solve, nor that the occasional high

might compensate for the drearily miserable

lows nor the opportunity never directly

sought to overdose. Much less that the frail

state of your health identifies you to the virus

as a credible destination.And then of course

there's the boredom factor. Look, I'm not sitting

comfortably here in judgement of you and

the misery life has handed you. Was it a bad

crowd you enjoyed that your mother warned

you against? That enemy of youth, peer pressure?

Disappointment with the trajectory of your

life when you expected much, much more?

Well, here you are, there are few crossroads

you might choose from since you've already

completed all the choices that have led to this.

Truly, honestly with feeling, I wish you well.