SOMEWHERE - patrolling the night / rough sleepers

Patrolling the night 

It's night, and here I go, loitering through the streets of some unknown city, this is, I leave the city centre now, I go across some middle class neighborhoods, I go through the suburbs, I see things, and then, I come back to the centre, I follow people, I follow signs on the walls, I follow signs on the sky and and at some point I end up at a top of a certain hill, looking at the city lights around, and so, it happens that here, on my back there is a certain bohemian area with bars and clubs and people wandering around through some adjacent gardens, holdings bottles, plastic cups and stuff, and so, I also go through it, recycling some beverages here and there, and then, amidst all these giggles, whispers and whimpers, I can actually hear tattered discussions about the existence of unnamed beings. This is, interjections of dubious connotations. Lascivious looks topped off with weird pronunciations and, what we can describe as, slingshot poses, I mean, the atheist fervor, or the imagery of a bizarre gods with many arms and legs but incapable of making decisions. And so, in the middle of all this, some kind of paranoid heroism is exalted, and then, here comes the gorilla man, now going through all these people, telling some non-sense, touching them here and there, punching his own chest while laughing, and then, as he comes to me, there I go, already running away from this personage, and so, downhill I go, again, already going across some middle class neighborhoods, looking at the the staff hanging on the clotheslines, checking the post of certain buildings, opening letters, exchanging them, this is, putting the ones from the ground floor on the postbox from the upper floor, and the opposite, staring at the stuff inside the cars parked in this middle class streets, cheeking the doors of some of this cars, surveying if some is open, and, as it goes, at some point I got one alarm ringing, and there I go, running up the street, going across some gardens and then I’m in the city centre again, a semi-abandoned area, at this time, even so, at the arcade of certain shops, there is some vagabonds stretched out, apparently sleeping, some stuffed inside sleeping bags, others, just like that, with their daily clothes on, shoes and everything, their heads lying on top of rugs. And so, as I go through this arcades, at some point, in front of a certain household appliances 2  store, there are a couple of guys seated on the floor, asking me for cigarettes, and, I do not have cigarettes, but, I remember, I do have a bunch of half-smoked joints in my pocket, something I picked up from the floor in front of the bars and taverns of that bohemian area I just came, and so, as I pass it to them, we open all them, we remix it, we add more tobacco and stuff, and we roll a new one, I mean a really fat one, and so, as they light it, I’m actually staring at the many tv screens on shop window on our back, each of them showing different  programs, say, ladies presenting the weather, war in distant countries, the private life of pop stars, cocky politicians talking trifles about themselves, contests to win prizes, live sports, horse racing, dog grooming, different kinds of reality shows, stupid publicity sketches and then, there is this discovery channel program displaying a small guy in a bow tie and a blue suit… and, he’s talking about something related to the “Vagus Nerve”, and as he talks, there are some huge imagens brains on his back, and so, at this point we three are seated on the floor, smoking this join and watching this american program about the supposed Vagus Nerve, and so, as it goes, the guy starts some kind of speech that goes more and less like this: “Human beings have an autonomic nervous system that is actually comprised of three separate subsystems… the parasympathetic nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system and the enteric nervous system… so, this is, the enteric nervous system has been described as a kind of second brain, which communicates with the central nervous system through the parasympathetic… via the vagus nerve and sympathetic nervous systems… however, vertebrate studies show that when the vagus nerve is severed, the enteric system will still continue to  work… and so…” the small guy says, while passing his tongue through the lips, “...we now know that the enteric system is not just capable of autonomy but also influences the brain… in fact, about ninety per cent of the signals passing along the vagus nerve come not from above, but from the enteric system… and that is why many consider it as a backup brain centred in our solar plexus… this is, our gut instincts are not fantasies but real nervous signals that guide much of our lives...” and while he says that, me and the other homeless guys stretched on the floor are actually exchanging troubled looks, and then, I put my attention to the screen again, and so, the small guy with the bow keeps going like this, “It is our vagus nerve that provides the gateway between the two parts of the autonomic systems.... so, the vagus nerve acts as a bio-informational data bus that routes impulses going in two directions… and, since the vagus nerve acts as the central switchboard, it should come as no surprise… that impaired functioning of this one nerve can lead to so many different conditions and problems…. like, some neurological diseases actually come up from the guts spreading to the brain via the vagus nerve… and…”; “you can see the truth now…” says one of the homeless guys on my back, “...the shit, yes, the shit we got in our guts… it will, yes, it will be responsible for some of your thinking, 3 upa-upa, who would have thought…” and then, the other homeless guy on the side is laughing and coughing at the same time, while smoking, and I… I put my attention on the screen again, and yeah, the guy in the bow now is there, here it is, leaping back and forth, not only at one screen, but passing from one screen to another, and so, then he continues, “The vagus nerve is the commander-in-chief when it comes to having grace under pressure… I mean, the autonomic nervous system is composed of two polar opposite systems that create a complementary tug-of-war, allowing our bodies to maintain homeostasis inner-stability... and so, this to say, that, the sympathetic nervous system is  geared to rev you up like the gas pedal in an automobile… I mean, it thrives on adrenaline and cortisol and is also part of the fight-or-flight response… thus, the parasympathetic nervous system is the polar opposite... and the vagus nerve is the command central for the function of our parasympathetic nervous system… but, unfortunately, the vagus nerve reflexive responses can backfire and turn it from comrade into saboteur… this is, the vagus nerve is known as the wandering nerve because… it has multiple branches, multiple branches that diverge from two thick stems rooted in the cerebellum and brain-stem that wander to the lowest viscera of our abdomen… touching our hearts and most major organs along the way… this to say, it meanders all the way down, into the belly, spreading fibres to our tongue, pharynx, vocal chords, lungs, heart, stomach, intestines and glands that produce anti-stress enzymes and hormones like Acetylcholine, Prolactin, Vasopressin, Oxytocin... (and now, as he says that, there is a flux of colourful psychedelic images on his back), influencing digestion, metabolism and the relaxation response… and so, the vagus nerve uses the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine… and if our brain cannot communicate with our diaphragm via the release of acetylcholine from the vagus nerve… then, you may stop breathing and…”, at this point the face of the presenter is getting red, like if he was choking with his own assumptions, or… and so, at this point, the other two homeless guys here in the back are strongly mocking the guy, comparing him with the jockey from the horse racing, and then, stuttering a bit, we let him continue, so, “Botox is a toxic substance that has the power to damage the nervous system and shut down the vagus nerve causing death… plus, it's interesting to note that... the heavy metal mercury blocks the action of acetylcholine, and, the neurotransmitter that passes the nerve impulse from the vagus nerve to the heart muscle… both acetylcholine and the nerve receptors in the heart muscle contain thiol proteins… thus, when mercury attaches to the thiol protein in the heart muscle receptors and in the acetylcholine, the heart muscle cannot receive the vagus nerve electrical impulse for contraction… and the result… the result is… Mercury accumulates in the heart muscle and heart valves, causing damage by attaching to thiol proteins, and so, by now we can say, that… the frequently observed rocking and swinging behaviours in autistic individuals may reflect a naturally occurring 4 bio-behavioral strategy to stimulate and regulate a vagal system that is not efficiently functioning… and so, people nowadays, have been highly contaminated with mercury used in dental amalgam which dentists routinely place only inches from the brain… and, plus than three thousand tons of mercury are put into the atmosphere each year contaminating the entire biosphere of our planet, but the government, nonsensically, seems to worry more about CO2 emissions from coal-fired smokestacks instead of the huge amount of neurotoxic mercury in the atmosphere…” and so, at this point, the screens on the back of this blue suit guy display a disturbing red sky approaching, and then, there are dentures dangling amid all this red sky, and, in  a while the blue suit guy disappear in the middle of it, and then, the program is over and some publicity about toothpaste follows. And so, now I look to my sides and see that, my comrades are already sleeping, and so, I even pull the blankets over them, and then, there I go, looking for something more, this is, from big streets I pass to narrower and narrower ones, and then, here I go entering the ghetto again, and in the meanwhile I feel that, I’m actually being followed, and so, and as it goes, a couple of guys with hoodies is already asking me “what do you want from this lands”, and “nothing” I instantly say, and well,  one of them comes forward and says, "people do not come here for nothing", and, as he says that, then, I’m already being pushed against a wall, my body turned upside down, and, as nothing great falls from my pockets, apart from a couple of stones, they let me go, but, only in a certain direction, and so, there I go, through a narrow dirt path, staggering, pushing my pants up, walking farefoot, and then, as I go down, I end up debouching at some marshy area, this is, despite the darkness, I can see, an area with mud and reeds and rubbish and pile of debris, and so, as I attempt to cross it, I end up getting bogged down in this shit, even so, somehow, after going from mound to mound, I would cross this area, getting out from there all dirty, and with a few cuts and the legs and even on the stomach… and so, now, as I try to clean myself, in a pile of rubbish, I even find some new clothes in the middle of all this trash, and then, as I keep advancing through the mound, down there I see some kind of highway that supposedly encircles the city, and so, I keep following in that direction, and, tin the meanwhile, as I get there, I even try to stop some cars, but no one stops, this is, they even make a bend, moving away from the verge where I walk, and then, at some point, some crazy even comes in my direction and makes as coming over me… but, diverting at the last instance, and so, after that, I no more try to stop any car, this is, I just keep advancing, by the railings, hiding myself from the road, and then, down there, I will see, still a bit far away from here, some kind of roundabout, this is, a place where the ring road crosses with some national roads, and so, as I see that, I imagine that it can be a good place to pass the night, and so, in the meanwhile, as I’m approaching it, I understand that in order to enter inside this roundabout I have 5 to pass under this road, and so, there I go, already getting inside some drainage pipes, groping as I got through it, I’m hearing some drops falling around me, and now, I think about demons, I think about fallen angels, I think about incubus, I think about succubus, and then, as I’m actually reaching the other end of this gutter, I’m a bit surprised that I’m still alive, so, now I try to relax a bit, but not for long, coz in a while I begin see some lightning coming from under this mesh of bridges, and so, albeit stealthily, I keep advance further, hiding myself behind some pillars as I’m advancing, and then, at some point, I can already realize that that lights are not lights, but a bonfire, and, from here, i also envisage some people seated around this supposed fire… like half a dozen, and there are some conversations going on, but, from here, I still can't understand what they are talking about, but, I already can see, that, all these man are bearded, and, they are all seated with their feet almost touching the fire, and as I stare at it, at some point, suddenly, I fell someone in my back, some arms holding my body, and I struggle, I try to break free, but, I can't, and so, in the meanwhile, "what are you doing here?", asks this voice, my holder’s voice, of course, this is, I can hear it very well but, I still can’t see his face, and so, "nothing" I say now, and, “that’s not the correct answer!”, this man’s voice says, and so, thinking that this can be a matter of life and death, I explain, “well, I got stuck in a swamp over there, where is the ghetto, and then, I came to this motorway, I tried to hitchhike, but, some car even tried to run over me, and, so, I just walked by the ring-road until getting here, and, as I approached I saw the lights, so, to be true, I got a bit afraid, this is, actually I was coming slowly, trying to figure out what was going on here, and…”, as I explain myself there are even some laughs, some muffled snickers, and in the meanwhile the guys around the fire even invite me to come over and seat with them, to present myself and to warm myself in front of the fire. So, said and done, there I go, already approaching the fire, this is, now I can already see their faces, and yeah, the confirmation, they are all bearded man, as said before, thus, four of the six are middle aged man, and the two others seem to be a bit more old, with bigger beards, hunchbacks, pulled over the fire…  and so, about the first four, one exhibits a crooked kind of nose, and is, alarmingly smiling in my/our direction, and, the other on the side, actually, have hairs coming out of the ears and is also smiling, but a different kind of smile, more placid, and, the third one, is a fat guy with a round kind of face, and he is not smiling, this is, his mucus are slipping out of his nose, and he is just letting it fall over the embers, and, about the next one, on the side, this one have gross lips and seems to be chewing some big piece of… And now, about the older men, one has a big scar on the face and hairs coming out of his ears, and the  other one, also displaying a sucked kind of face, is now talking alone, this is, he is talking in the direction of the fire, while moving the positions of some burning sticks. And finally, we have here the one that took hold of me before, this is, he is clearly the younger one, his members are slender, I mean, he moves with style, and again, he’s coming to me, but this time, he’s not coming to hold myself, he’s coming to present me with some clean and dry pieces of clothes. This is, introductions are made, and in the meanwhile, teas and spirits are already circulating around the fire, and so, I drink some, and then, they pick up again some pieces of card, and, here they go, actually returning to the game they were previously playing, before my coming, this is, I get to know, the name of the game is “one thousand ways of getting fucked”, and, as I try to understand the filosophy of this game, the first one is already starting, this is, after spitting on the embers, he starts by saying, “you are inside your house, you feel lonely, so, you come out, and, instantly, as you get out from building entrance door, a car comes in your directions and runs over your body…so, you are done”. Some silence now, and then, “easy and smart” someone says, and “repetitive” other one utters. And then, they raise their hand, as a football referee does, showing their cards with numbers, this is, as I understand, there are cards with numbers from one to nine, and, I see no congruence in this voting, because some show the number one, others show the number nine, others show the number seven, others show the number two, others show no number at all. So, everything is very scattered, and, as it goes, some sly smiles are coming my way. And then, at some point, one other guy with his head embraced in smoke says “I’m being seduced by a big rat, I follow it, and as I advance, at some point, in order to pick up a banana, I slip on the back of a big snake, and then, I am being chased by an ultra fast cheetah, and so, no escape, I end up in a hole where they bury the lions' shit". And again, there are some voting, this is, they show up the cards, and then, one other continues “There is a guy riding a bicycle in the middle of a city, he goes across a big avenue, and, he passes one red traffic light, he passes two red traffic lights, he passes three red traffic lights and then, inside his head all get so red, he can’t see any other color, so, now, he approaches the sidewalk, he parks his red bicycle against the red rail, and enters the red door of the red cafe, and when he faces the girl at the balcony, he can actually see that her eyes are actually green, and so, as he stars at her eyes, at this point, he falls out”.