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Down and Out in Saigon

Southeast Asia, and Mexico
 has always attracted 
A certain type of westerner
The down and out 

On a down word spiral
Why?
Relatively cheap to live
Lots of part-time gigs

Teaching English
Or other things
Cheap Booze, drugs, sex
Readily available


Places to stay
Dirt cheap
And no one needs 
To sleep outdoors

Easy to disappear
Into the foreigner's backpackers ghettos
And escape 
From whatever you are running from

The locals are somewhat tolerant
The police usually look the other way
And there are lots of people
In your shoes

I was surprised to find 
That Saigon has become
The latest place 
For the down and outer crowd

In Bangkok, one sees them a lot
In Cambodia as well
In the Philippines 
In Nepal

And south of the border
In Mexico as well
and Eastern Europe
and Latin America 
 
In India not so much
In Japan and Korea 
Just too damn expensive
And too cold to be outdoors

Back in the day
I used to work 
The citizen services gig
And saw lots of the down and outer set

The old blues song 
comes to mind
No one remembers you 
When you are down and out 

And in the States
Being down and out 
Means living 
on the mean streets

As it is very difficult 
To live with almost no money
And the various side hustles 
Don’t give you much money
Unless you are dealing drugs

And teaching ESL
Is not an option
other hustles are difficult
and begging gets one arrested

Food is expensive
Transportation is expensive
Booze and drugs expensive
Rent is prohibitive

Commercial sex is expensive
And no one loves you
If you are down and out
No one knows your name

You are just another
 homeless bum
Invisible to all
As you try to make do 

Much better to be down and out
In Southeast Asia
Than on the mean streets 
Of the USA

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