Cop cars pulled into the parkin’ lot ’round midnight…she was lying face down in the gravel…mumbling incoherently…some kind of talk ’bout vengence…some man who’d kicked her out into the streets…it was cold outside…

Roll over…,the officer said as he shined the flashlight over her fat body…,Roll over I said…, he repeated…his partner standin’ over her…, Say what’s your name…come on now tell me your name…, the woman just laid there…gutteral moans…continued talkin’ to herself…

You could hear the train go by in the distance…he stood outside smokin’ a cigarette and watchin’ the cops tryin’ to get this woman up off the ground with words…just words…,I need ya to roll over so I can see your face…can ya do that for me…,the policeman continued shinin’ the light at her…,Come on now…roll over…, she made half hearted attempts as the train wailed and the cops grew more impatient…

You can’t sleep out here…,the man in blue said…,We need to get you to the hospital…you wanna go to the hospital…come now…where do you live…are you out here on the streets…,she lifted her gritty blonde hair off the tiny rocks…side of her face imprinted with pebble marks…,Can you say somethin’…, the woman looked up into the light…

Why you two starin’ at me…, she squinted…, Don’t you have anything better to do…, cop shook his head…said no…

And the train whistle wailed some more…he kept lookin’ at her on the ground and the cops…he was the one who called ’em…guessin’ he felt guilty ’bout somethin’…the man just stood there starin’…maybe a long time ago he’d kicked a woman out of his place…maybe she came back in a drunken stupor to look for him…maybe…he checked his phone and went back inside the boarding house…leavin’ her and the cops behind…

I don’t wanna go to no hospital…, the lady screamed out at the two officers…,I’ll be alright…this is where I live…this is where I belong…

You live in that house…

No…I live out here in the streets man…

Well…come on now…let’s get you inside that car over there so you can get warm…how ’bout that…

OK…but no hospital…I don’t like needles…

We’ll see…we’ll see…

The two cops lifted the woman in soiled clothes and placed her in the squad car…her face was pressed against the glass as they drove off…

A train whistle wailed…