Conversation
I met two men today who will heretofore be referred to as "Jester" and "Burt"(Burt being Burt, Jester being a guy whose real name is lost in the sands of about an hour ago [time], but referred to himself as a clown/jester). I believe them to both be homeless, as I met them at the Julia West House. The Julia West House is a hub for homeless persons to drink free coffee, bullshit incessantly and bum cigarettes from one another.
Jester wore glasses with small, rectangular frames, a cap implying his desired profession and a jacket covered in multicolored, sequined squares which held inside each either and X or and O. The X was always gold and the O was always silver (both were also sequined). A silver goatee lined his gaunt, angular face. The great irony of Jester was that he was never intentionally funny and oftentimes quite morbid. He was 52 years old.
Burt had a thick mustache (decently similar to his more famous name-companion) and a wide jaw. His chin was indented with a small pit, as opposed to the more common cleavage manifested by those with butt-chins. He wore a jean jacket and red t-shirt on his torso and a mass of greasy brown hair combed back from his prodigious forehead.
I became decently aware of their presence after Jester took up a chair I was previously occupying in the area cordoned off for those who enjoyed fresh air/smoking. He and Burt began to throw words at each other while I and a man who did nothing but giggle sat nearby, contributing nothing. Jester kept using ratios to convince everyone that Julia West House was where the girls should be looking for available bachelors.
Jester: "I mean, this is pretty much all the single dudes in Portland, here! In this town it's like 1 dude to 50 chicks, and they should tune in to that. There should be girls linin' up in bathing suits with pies and we should be taking our pick!"
Jester and Burt began to make remarks regarding the female population of Portland having "too high standards". They also said that they would ignore the ugly girls that would come with pies and that they had not yet become desperate enough to couple with a Mexican or Black girl.
I made a statement to Jester to the effect of "I just want to be a eunuch, man." This started a decent discourse in which he talked in my direction and I acknowledged him intermittently. After about four statements of acknowledgement I became brazen enough to make a move for one of his smokes (Pall Mall Menthol).
Me: "I don't mean to be invasive, but may I have one of your smokes?"
Jester: "Uh, yeah." (fumbles in shirt pocket, hands me a cig) "But what's "invasive"? I don't know that man, seventh grade education."
Me: Well, uh, I suppose it would be like...getting in someone's shit."
Jester: "Oh, man, I don't get in anybody's shit..."
Jester than segued into a ramble about his time in the Hanoi Hilton. He had said "I'm going to get some clown suits!" I thought he said something regarding the apocalypse. We then veered into a conversation about Apocalypse Now and from there took a detour to the Hanoi. He talked about torture and things of the sort and referenced a movie.
Jester: "Have you ever seen Rosebud?"
Me: "Do you mean Citizen Kane?"
Jester: "No man, Rosebud. It's about this dude who was in Nam and was given electro-shock treatment and Sodium Penethol(probable misspelling) and then got a phone call that just said 'Rosebud'. He went out with a Rifle and killed 40 people, man."
Later on he began talking about his own mental tics/the nature of Good and Evil.
Me: "I think that there isn't any pure bad or good, simply grey areas"
Jester: "No, you're wrong. It says in the bible that there are good men and there are bad men. It's like a switch. And They can never turn a good man bad."
LATER
Jester: "They just know I'm not right now. Like that movie Rosebud, I can't go by the airfield. They know what I'd do. They've got instructions. They'll kill a clown on sight."
Me: " That's unfortunate for clowns."
Jester: "That's those fucks problem. But they know me. They've got my picture on their boot. They'll just fucking shoot me."
Near this point Jester left and I got into a very odd conversation about CHRIST with Burt. He was excessively convinced that god was propelling him around through life in all the right ways.
I must cut this short due to time constraints. I just needed to commit it to something while it was fresh.
Jester wore glasses with small, rectangular frames, a cap implying his desired profession and a jacket covered in multicolored, sequined squares which held inside each either and X or and O. The X was always gold and the O was always silver (both were also sequined). A silver goatee lined his gaunt, angular face. The great irony of Jester was that he was never intentionally funny and oftentimes quite morbid. He was 52 years old.
Burt had a thick mustache (decently similar to his more famous name-companion) and a wide jaw. His chin was indented with a small pit, as opposed to the more common cleavage manifested by those with butt-chins. He wore a jean jacket and red t-shirt on his torso and a mass of greasy brown hair combed back from his prodigious forehead.
I became decently aware of their presence after Jester took up a chair I was previously occupying in the area cordoned off for those who enjoyed fresh air/smoking. He and Burt began to throw words at each other while I and a man who did nothing but giggle sat nearby, contributing nothing. Jester kept using ratios to convince everyone that Julia West House was where the girls should be looking for available bachelors.
Jester: "I mean, this is pretty much all the single dudes in Portland, here! In this town it's like 1 dude to 50 chicks, and they should tune in to that. There should be girls linin' up in bathing suits with pies and we should be taking our pick!"
Jester and Burt began to make remarks regarding the female population of Portland having "too high standards". They also said that they would ignore the ugly girls that would come with pies and that they had not yet become desperate enough to couple with a Mexican or Black girl.
I made a statement to Jester to the effect of "I just want to be a eunuch, man." This started a decent discourse in which he talked in my direction and I acknowledged him intermittently. After about four statements of acknowledgement I became brazen enough to make a move for one of his smokes (Pall Mall Menthol).
Me: "I don't mean to be invasive, but may I have one of your smokes?"
Jester: "Uh, yeah." (fumbles in shirt pocket, hands me a cig) "But what's "invasive"? I don't know that man, seventh grade education."
Me: Well, uh, I suppose it would be like...getting in someone's shit."
Jester: "Oh, man, I don't get in anybody's shit..."
Jester than segued into a ramble about his time in the Hanoi Hilton. He had said "I'm going to get some clown suits!" I thought he said something regarding the apocalypse. We then veered into a conversation about Apocalypse Now and from there took a detour to the Hanoi. He talked about torture and things of the sort and referenced a movie.
Jester: "Have you ever seen Rosebud?"
Me: "Do you mean Citizen Kane?"
Jester: "No man, Rosebud. It's about this dude who was in Nam and was given electro-shock treatment and Sodium Penethol(probable misspelling) and then got a phone call that just said 'Rosebud'. He went out with a Rifle and killed 40 people, man."
Later on he began talking about his own mental tics/the nature of Good and Evil.
Me: "I think that there isn't any pure bad or good, simply grey areas"
Jester: "No, you're wrong. It says in the bible that there are good men and there are bad men. It's like a switch. And They can never turn a good man bad."
LATER
Jester: "They just know I'm not right now. Like that movie Rosebud, I can't go by the airfield. They know what I'd do. They've got instructions. They'll kill a clown on sight."
Me: " That's unfortunate for clowns."
Jester: "That's those fucks problem. But they know me. They've got my picture on their boot. They'll just fucking shoot me."
Near this point Jester left and I got into a very odd conversation about CHRIST with Burt. He was excessively convinced that god was propelling him around through life in all the right ways.
I must cut this short due to time constraints. I just needed to commit it to something while it was fresh.