To Sleep

Sparks alight on his wrinkled jacket most not hot enough to melt the faded purple nylon but he shifts his position all the same out of the smokey breezes path. Tonight he is a lone figure in front of this communal fire, gingerly perched on a damp log dragged out of the nearby bushes. He watches as the last of the local grocery store's employees leave for the night at the other end of a gravel parking lot that is more left over puddles then anything. Letting out a sigh he rubs red finger tips together in the hopes of regaining some feeling, now an almost foreign concept to most of his digits. Darkness has once again surrounded his huddled form, the sound of sirens drifts across the deserted lot, a police car he predicts, a wave of relief washing over him as the sound fades in the opposite direction. Tomorrow he would look for a more concealed spot to spend the night. A shiver runs down his bony spine. As he gazes in awe at the stars above, a long forgotten Sunday school teacher's voice invades his thoughts; God is watching. Paranoia toys with his fragile mind as he combs shoulder length dirty-blond hair with a shaking hand, one that longs to feel the comfort of a cigarette, but the last one had been gone several hours before. Gazing into the flames once again, he rests a bearded chin on interlaced fingers, eyelids growing heavy despite the night's incessant chill. Rousing himself before sleep can steal over him he rolls another stray log onto the fire before laying his own lanky frame down for another sleepless night.