I get mixed up sometimes. Not sure if I’m
defending my worn mattress under this
train bridge near the state capitol’s prime
parking spaces, or still prepping to diss
some gook attacking our overpass near
Pleiku. The fog usually covers me
at night when I start to drift off. Cape Fear,
I call it. Or, worse, when I’m suddenly
startled awake by movement nearby. I
nearly killed old Cedric last week. Wined out,
he stumbled and fell into me. As my
hand cocked to crumple his neck, Nick shouted
my name and grabbed me. He served in Iraq.
Tonight we’ll watch stars through bridge spans. Smoke crack.
Roger Armbrust
July 29, 2007
*About one-third of the adult homeless population have served their country in the Armed Services. On any given day, as many as 200,000 veterans (male and female) are living on the streets or in shelters, and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year. Many other veterans are considered near homeless or at risk because of their poverty, lack of support from family and friends, and dismal living conditions in cheap hotels or in overcrowded or substandard housing.
Right now, the number of homeless male and female Vietnam era veterans is greater than the number of service persons who died during that war -- and a small number of Desert Storm veterans are also appearing in the homeless population…About 45% of homeless veterans suffer from mental illness and (with considerable overlap) slightly more than 70% suffer from alcohol or other drug abuse problems.
From the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
“Overview of Homelessness”
