Poem in homage to the homeless advocate, Mitch Snyder, who had recently committed suicide, and the sweep of the homeless from Civic Center in San Francisco. As Hirschman states, this is an ongoing struggle, i.e., a half-mast flag hangs at City Hall (ironically and hypocritically) and thus his symbolic allusion at the poem's ending. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.