the homeless guy interviews

when she was still in high school,
my middle dtr that lives with me and her friends
used to publish zines of their poetry and rants.
i'd watch her pasting them up on the floor and ask,
"where'd you learn to do that?"
she'd reply, "mimi learned how to do it
from a girl she met on the internet."
i'd ask, "why don't you just do it online?"
and she'd reply, "we just like the feel of paper."
(how fahrenheit 451, i'd think.)

for awhile, she and her friend jessica
were interviewing homeless guys
downtown around sundance square.
her mother was mortified.
"how can you let her do that?" she'd ask.
but aimee assured me,
"we always talk to them in public places
where we're not alone, and we always stay
at least 10 feet away. besides,
downtown is crawling with all kinds of cops:
city, sundance square, bass.
cops on foot, cops on bikes, cops on horses.
the only thing they're missing
is cops on roller skates."

i remember she told me about one guy in particular
whose story stuck in my head.
his name was rusty (which, coincidentally,
was the name of her favorite stuffed bunny as a child)
and when they met, he told her,
"i'll bet you a smile that i can guess
the state where you were born and raised."
okay, she said.
he said: "you were born in a state of infancy
and raised in a state of confusion."
i think it's possible that he might have been the one
who was later kicked to death
by a teenage boy in ripley arnold
while a crowd sat there and watched
but i really hope that he wasn't.