A gross homeless man is on the bus. Did he pay more? I ask because adult lice should be required to pay something. Fascinating that the smell of the homeless man is so different from taxicab stench. There is perspiration smell and then there is raw sewage smell. As a NYer, no matter how bad it gets I’m not getting off to wait another fifteen minutes for another bus. I would take a cab but I try to limit myself to one unreimbursable cab ride per day (this morning, one appeared right before my eyes and it was a cultural imperative to hop in). I’m feeling a little faint. I wonder if I got into a gross cab, would the smells cancel each other out or would the synergies create an explosive effect. So I decided to sit down. Of course next to the older woman with a urine smell “issue”. I’ll brave it out because my mom z”l wore Depends at the end of her life.  Some woman sat down near the gross homeless man and started looking around for the source of the smell. Helloooooooooo. A few minutes have passed now and she has changed her seat. She and her seat are forever changed. Now a new aroma: sauteed-onion-in-a-plastic-bag smell. A lunch not eaten. A bacterial warfare agent created. A new life and all its complexities. A beautiful moment.  Some of that could be haiku.