All good cafes have a Stinky Guy.<\/p>\n
He sits at the counter.<\/p>\n
Same frayed plaid sports jacket,<\/p>\n
A sweater under it in winter.<\/p>\n
Carries a stained cloth bag.<\/p>\n
Sits at the same counter stool.<\/p>\n
Orders 2 scrambled eggs, 2 pieces of bacon and toast.<\/p>\n
Reeks of the street,<\/p>\n
Truck exhaust, gutter filth.<\/p>\n
Skin left to its own devices,<\/p>\n
Without water, soap, toilet paper.<\/p>\n
Grimy fabric helps insulate other patrons<\/p>\n
From his noisome frame.<\/p>\n
Only the waitress gets close.<\/p>\n
He gobbles and mumbles,<\/p>\n
Holds his fork like a shovel.<\/p>\n
He eats alone.<\/p>\n
Pays in cash and tips well.<\/p>\n
No eye contact or acknowledgement.<\/p>\n
We all like it this way.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By Sue Storts<\/p>\n
08\/13\/2016<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All good cafes have a Stinky Guy. He sits at the counter. Same frayed plaid sports jacket, A sweater under it in winter. Carries a stained cloth bag. Sits at the same counter stool. Orders 2 scrambled eggs, 2 pieces of bacon and toast. Reeks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":737,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/737"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19363,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18870\/revisions\/19363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}