Neither more nor less

I had spent a wonderful bright summer afternoon walking with a friend down the west side of Manhattan , along the Hudson River .On my way home I decided to wend  my way through the heart of the neighborhood , Tompkins Square Park .Shortly after I had entered the park a woman in the children's playground cried out "camera man!". When I turned to her she pointed to a large low limb in a tree.On that broad flat limb was a pigeon ,dead and supine , offering up it entrails to a ravenous Red Tailed hawk .

As the hawk's beak ripped pink guts from the pigeon's carcass , a child's water gun propelled an arc of water droplets insufficiently high to reach the hawk .A portion of this errant stream though did reach some on Crusty Row . Some angered and vocal  , one wetted man rose and walked to the fence near me saying "I'm goin' down man . Take one last picture of me before I'm dead" .I took a picture as the young man sank , finally with his knees on the asphalt , one hand clutching the iron fence .

He had a new prescription for suboxone he said  , a new drug for him and he was taking it beyond the prescribed quantity  with beers to get high .He achieved his desired end .An ambulance was called . Dramatic for a few moments , all changed when the now laid out young man some how rose to his feet , asked for a cigarette ,which no one had , and walked out of the park to avenue A to find one .