The Lonely Boulevard

Home of the brave

Home of the free

Home of the homeless

how can this be?

Walking down the lonely boulevard

no eye contact with those I see.

People looking up, people looking down

people looking all around, but not at me.

A small voice asks from below

“Hey mister can you spare some change?”

I stop, look down, frown….

“Hey mister I need money for food!”

Then she looks me in the eyes

an urchin, a remnant of a girl

someone’s daughter in the lost and found.

I sit down and say, “How are you today?”

“I’m hungry, can you spare some change?”

What if she uses the money not for food

but for drugs, cigarettes and booze?

I look in her beautiful green eyes

and see a forgotten soul

better off dead? I think not.

So, “Yes, sweetie, I have some change for you,”

then hand her a pocketful of coins.

Again, “Please tell me, how are you today?”

She looks in my eyes

and her emeralds are flashing, “Like, who is this guy?

Does he really give a s_t?”

Then, something inside her gives a bit,

“I’m fine.”

And that would have been it, except

“You don’t seem fine.”

With that, her eyes glowed afire

“Mister, you don’t know the first thing about me,

who I am, where I’m from, or what I wanna be!”

Finally, yes, thru my self absorbed fog

I could see her human dignity

then paused, about to say, well, don’t know…

So, just got up, smiled, tipped my hat

and said the only thing there was to say

“God bless you little one” and moved on

down the lonely boulevard with a thousand others.

No one speaking, no eye contact with those I see

no one to ask, can you spare some change,

can you ease my pain?

No one like the girl on the street

Who affirmed my existence

Who took the time to speak the truth

Who looked thru me with those crystal eyes,

both dead and alive,

Who showed me God’s presence on this lonely boulevard.