butts

the other day while walking downtown i saw this guy walking around yelling shit in french. he was wearing plastic bags on his feet. they weren't name brand. just some regular plain white plastic bags but they looked a couple of sizes too big. it got me thinking about how he ended up in that position. maybe it was one thing that made him snap or a lifetime of problems that accumulated in him on the streets. he wasn't asking for money he was mostly scanning the ground looking for plump cigarette butts. at one point he caught sight of a good one. only half smoked and still burning. his eyes light up as he held it up. it almost felt like i was watching one of those Saturday morning fishing shows where the guys pull the fish into the boat and raise the fish while saying 'this a good 10 pounder it's a beauty' instead the guy put the cigarette to his mouth took a big long drag and then said something which i think translated to 'just way too many newspapers'.