oh yes there’s many a man or woman
that’s been put in the insane asylum
when this has happened to them
and they’re sitting there today, people think they’re insane
but they saw something that’s real
and they see it when they’re on drugs
the only thing is they see it
not through the light of godbecause when you see the face of god you will die
—Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hung Over as the Queen In Maida Vale
I saw you through the window, in a coffee shop without a coffee in your hand.
At first I wondered why you were sitting so far away from your bags, as if you had put them down and forgotten where you were.
Then I realized that those bags were the sum of your possessions, along with your pink Dora The Explorer hat, and soiled orange overcoat you wore in the middle of a warm summer night. Everything about you screamed crazy.
You played with your jellybeans, tilting them back and forth in the clear plastic bag, watching them slide back and forth with eyes like stones in their sockets. You were lost to the world.
ENJOY YOUR STAY WITH US
BUT NO LOITERING PLEASE
20 MINUTE TIME-LIMIT
Then you got up and left. You wandered the street, pausing to peer in the windows of jewelery stores where there was no jewelery, like a child without a care in the world.
It made me wonder.
What got you high tonight?
Did you see the face of God tonight?