It has been quite the week of loss and death in Washington, DC.  First we had the holocaust museum shooting then the red line crash and finally, the celebrities.  Ed McMahon, Fara Faucet and Michael Jackson will live on in television, music and movies, the people they touched – whether directly or indirectly – will remember them fondly as individuals to be cherished and admired.

That being said, it is more often the case that someone dies and goes completely unnoticed.  As most of you know, I am an active member of the homeless community in Washington DC.  A couple weeks ago, Howard, a client of mine passed away.  I worked with him very closely for the past 3 years in an attempt to get him on his feet.  However, the more I worked with him the harder it became.  He spent his life alienating people instead of welcoming people and this was never more prevalent then in his final years.  He was not an addict, he did not have a serious mental illness, he was simply a loner.

There is no one to mourn his death.  There have been no tears shed over this loss. He hasn’t talked to his family for 31 years.  I am the only contact on any of his emergency forms.  At the end of his life, his body goes unclaimed and becomes state property.  This is the other side of death, of life, of reality.

I’ve been writing a lot lately.  This is probably the saddest song I have ever written.   I hope Howard is finally at peace.

Philadelphia   (You Fade Away…)

Philadelphia, you make your home wherever you lay.
Still that’s not enough to make you stay.
Aboard a train you find yourself, faces turn the other way.
It’s all the same to you, you turn away.

And oh your love, that she never was.
Your closest friends, the same for them.

Try out Washington, strip clubs never seemed a sin.
When you’ve got nothing else, you still must live.

And oh your love, 31 years and not a note.
Now your closest friends, of which there are none, to hold.

Lingering on, soup kitchens, hospital beds and malls.
You leave a trail, pretend to know the people there, then disappear.
Now you’re gone, no one to mourn the death of no one.
I’m sure you prayed, that your secrets would be dead with you,
    That the love you never shared be true,
    Now alone in an empty room…
    You fade away…