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| Image by Shirley Deane/Midyett |
By Moristotle
[Originally published on July 24, 2006.]
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.
| Copyright © 2006, 2020 by Moristotle |
One hot day I was heading north toward the Freeway when I spotted a homeless man with a sign standing on the curb. The sign read can you spare a buck I really need a beer. I pulled over and gave 5 bucks.
ReplyDeleteVery nice message--something we need to read on a hot summer's day in the midst of all of this anger and frustration.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.