I never liked skid-row and so I stayed away from the soup
kitchens, the bloodbanks and all the so-called hand-
outs.
 
I got so god damned thin that if
I turned sidewise it was hard to see my shadow under a
hard noon sun.
 
it didn’t matter to me so long as I stayed away from the
crowd

and even down there it was a
successful and unsuccessful
crowd.

I don’t think I was insane
but many of the
insane think
that

but I think
now
if anything saved me
it was the avoidance of the
crowd

it was my
food

still
is.

get me in a room with more than
3 people
I tend to act
ill
odd.
 
I once
even asked my wife: look, I must be
sick… perhaps I ought to see a
shrink?
 
Christ, I said, he might cure me
and then what would I
do?
 
she just looked at me 
and we forgot the
whole
thing.