Austin Texas, January 6, 1994
Street person. Large. Fat. Dirty.
Long dirty strands of colorful cloth
Tied to a ragged fatigue shirt.
He was like a large dirty homemade version of Orson Wells.
He’s railing at passing cars,
Raised fist in defiance.
He’s angry about injustice.
He’s angry about how women treat him coldly.
But in general he’s managing to have a good time.
His cause celebre is the insurrection in Mexico.
He is shouting “Viva la Revolution!”
The sun is shining. He is using a trash receptacle
To beat out an unrythmic beat. He discovers me standing behind him.
He has an audience now.
He tells me about the neighborhood cop he doesn’t like.
Then he tells me about his hat.
White baseball cap with black X on it.
“You know guys tell me that this is a symbol of black racism.
In other words, I’m white and I’m wearing this hat that
Says I hate white people. Hey! I’m not proud of being white.
84 black women were lynched. 84! and they were all women.
Now, if you were a black man wouldn’t that make you want
To riot and start a revolution? But are they doing it?
No, they’re not. And that’s a credit to them.
I’ll tell you a story. I was down on Sixth street and I got popped.
I took it on the chin. It was a sucker punch. I didn’t see it coming.
This black guy got around on the side while I was looking at
This other guy who was distracting me, see.
So he pops me good and I go down.
But I jump right back up and I’m still surprised that it happened and
They back a little out of range and I says to them, Hey! It’s OK.
I know.” (He was talking about the X on his cap)
About this time 2 clean cut young college boys came up with
A video camera and asked if they could film us. Then they realized
That I was probably not homeless like Mr. X.
I was not connected in their minds to homelessness.
So they filmed Mr X for a minute and he did his Viva la Revolution routine
And I watched and smiled and listened mostly. Then the college boys
Left.
Next came 2 guys who actually looked like they could be Mexican Indians.
This was a remarkable coincidence. One was blind and with an
Interesting haircut of short cropped hair but for a thin braided single
Pigtail in back. The other guy asked for a light and offered Mr. X
And myself a cigarette. X started in on these guys about
The revolution without saying anything unnecessary like “You
Guys look like you could be from Chiapas.”
Anyway he started in and sure enough the blind guy said, “Yeah,
The whites are making a mess of things.” And they moved off down the street.
After they left, X turned to me and said, “D’ya hear that?”
“Yeah,” I smiled and nodded. He smiled and nodded back.
Then he gathered up his bags as if the debate was over and he had won,
And he was gone.
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