DEAD MEN WALKING

In poker, 'Dead Men Walking' is used to describe a player who is drawing dead, and has no chance of winning.

In the workplace, the phrase is used to describe an employee who is certain to be fired in the future.

And of course, due to  those wonderful folks who brought us the movie starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, the phrase is most often now thought of as the  unenviable title of a death row  prisoner on his terminal walk to eternity.

In prison, also, the phrase is a warning that an inmate who is on death row is walking by and caution should be shown since the dead man walking wouldn't hesitate to kill someone seeing as the death row prisoner is already dead.

And all of the above interpretations are fitting descriptions of so many street puppies in homeless nation.

Which probably explains,  - does not excuse, but does explain -  the cavalier attitude shown by so many street puppies when one of their number has actually been found dead. 

Doesn't matter where.  In the river, in a ditch, under a bush, behind an abandoned building, under a car, or as was recently the case, the unfortunate soul, found lying face down right outside police headquarters.

 The  most usual response to the news of the newly departed dead man walking, is a slow nod or shaking of the head,  a look of somber wisdom, and maybe, a muttered , 'too bad, he was a good guy.'

And nobody really bothers to find out  what happened.  It is assumed that he was, just another dead man walking.

And the the cause of the fatal turn could be an unattended illness, or an accident, or a slow, steady descent into hell.

 Most street puppies cannot afford doctors, and are put off by the rituals of the local emergency room, so common maladies like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems, vascular problems, and the like go undetected or untreated until it is too late.

 Or he's not watching where he's going, and steps into traffic, or trips over his own bike, or has one too many for the road and the road is a dead end for him,  and the dead man walking ends up lying face down in in a river, a ditch, under a bush, behind an abandoned building, under a car or right outside police headquarters.

Or  he has given up any hope of getting out of homeless nation. Maybe it was the last phone call home which resulted in yet another argument with a spouse or parent or sibling.

 Or the inability to deal with the death of a family member he had not seen in so very long , and had no chance to say good bye to, or to mend whatever fracas had started the estrangement.

Or the news that a family he had abandoned and shattered had been put back together by another man.

Or the sickness in the pit of his stomach everytime he thought of how he could no longer afford the simplest pleasures life had to offer.

Or the dawning  knowledge that, at a deep spiritual level, he simply felt always ashamed.

 So he started drinking and/or drugging his way through it.  Night and day. Staying high became the mistress he craved, pursued and gorged himself with.

Alcohol is cheap, and plentiful by the can, especially the cheaper brands that are guaranteed to eat your brain and stomach away.

Crack and pills are even cheaper, by the unit anyway.

But after awhile, the cost of maintaining that kind of high is prohibitive and adds yet another sordid ingredient to the bubbling cocktail of misery -  the high costs of incarceration, not only the bruises suffered inside the jail, but the deep bruising to the soul.

And at last, the street puppie will be consumed by the fires of addiction, or the utter sadness which saturates his spirit, or the jumbled thinking resulting from the constant supply of alcohol or drugs, which then results in  the deadly misjudgements which lead to stepping off the curb at the wrong time, tumbling off the bike, or just simply falling into the river.

And the street puppy becomes just another poker player drawing dead; another employee bound to be fired; another man on the terminal stroll to his unenviable end, Another name on the long list of  Dead Men Walking.