After Dinner Conversation

Volume 4, Issue 6, June 2023

Margery Topper Weinstein
Pages 51-56

The Hanging Man

Is a dead homeless person social commentary? Is a dead homeless person art? In this philosophical short story fiction, the narrator goes to an upscale, “undiscovered artists” experience in New York City. While at the event she realizes there is a dead homeless person hanging from the ceiling in the corner. Nobody seems to mind, and she assumes people just haven’t noticed. As the show finishes, she realizes people do notice, are not offended and, in fact, simply consider the dead person is part of the artistic experience. The narrator questions the security guards who explain the homeless person died on the street and was moved into the gallery to wait until the police showed up. Dead homeless people are common enough that, even after this one is removed, another will be available shortly to take its place.