I Knew Who He Was

It was December and the thin young man had no coat.
I tried to step around him, but he pushed into my path
and forced me to look him in the eyes.

"Do you have a dollar for me to get something to eat?"

It isn't easy to say no when they catch your eye.
Their eye is like your eye, a man's eye.
"I'm sorry, but no I don't have it."

"You don't have it?"
His voice and his eyes said he knew it wasn't true.

I turned and walked away from his disappointment,
away from his want,
whether of food as he said, or of drink, or of drugs.

But the man's eyes.

By the time I reached my car I realized who he was.
I knew whose asking I was walking away from.

As I left the parking lot I rolled down my window,
and he took the dollar.
Our eyes once again were the same eye.

And he was thinking,
I am you asking for the gift of grace,
and you are whoever of Whom you ask it.