do you notice them
the watchful, the weary,
sometimes gaunt
or busily hunched
or seated, alone
drawing, scribbling
into closely guarded journals,
or walking,
forever walking
avoiding contact, interaction,
engagement - maintaining distance
shepherding commuters from
psychosis, paranoia,
unwellness, either
diagnosed or undiagnosed
while a few, bolder,
shout esoteric warnings
to the crowd, curious onlookers
or the sky –

symptomatic of the discarded,
the misfit or the rejected
they dot the urban landscape
uncounted but monitored,
lest they attack the shadows
we cannot see

First Published in ‘New Poets 19’ FSP, 2018