in between the stretchers
upon which lie the dyspneic ill,
there is a threadbare curtain
separating
a man who, homeless and addicted,
will be received by harsh frigid cold,
and a man who, retired and domiciled,
will go home to his sons,

and there am I, one foot beyond the curtain,
seeing two men with the same disease, and
watching the world
choose who will live.