"Joseph K" AKA "Joey Knuckles"

Before I get into how I almost got into a fist fight with a crazed homeless guy last night, some background about Joseph K and fisticuffs. I was 19 the last time I was ever in a fight. And I wasn't really fighting. I was trying to break up a brawl. I caught an elbow in the rib. I don't think he meant it. But, it didn't stop me from putting one in his right kidney. I was trying to pull everyone apart, and he wasn't cooperating. It was for everyone's safety.

I am not going to front. My success rate in fights is about 50%. Probably because I am a wild swinger. I remember a fight when I was twelve where I missed with an uncontroled upper cut. I caught a cross on my forehead that had me walking around with a baseball-sized knot for three days. Another fight that same year one of my punches caught a guy flush in the ear. I remember the guy falling to his knees, crying and saying, "Why? Why? My ear?" I didn't have an answer for him, except that I was aiming more generally for his face.

So, I was walking across the street with a friend, on our way to a bar. Something hit me hard in the shin. Then, a voice, "You don't fucking cut me off."

I turned around, and there was this guy yelling at me about being cut off. He seemed like he might be homeless, but seemed relatively well-dressed. He was carrying a bag, which is what he hit me with.

"What the fuck is your problem, you crazy motherfucker?" I actually surprised myself. And then I surprised myself even more by thinking, I could drop this old, crazy fucker with a punch to the neck.

My conscious mind caught up with my subconscious mind a second later. This guy was a violent, crazy and volatile person who was walking the streets. He was going to hurt someone eventually. The combination of me wanting to stop the guy and anger led to me seriously considering punching him in the neck.

All the while I was thinking this, I had been walking. He was behind us muttering. Then silence. I turned around thinking he was just about to hit me in the back of the head.

Nope. He was just digging through some trash.