A Gift From The Homeless

I was walking out of a non profit partnership meeting the other day. There was a homeless man walking down the street that passed me. He asked if he could pet my angel dog Samson. They said hello to each other, and then he started reciting a poem he asked if he could share. It was a poem he called, “Goodbye.” There were a lot of car noise so I got bits and pieces, something about how he had to go on and leave his loss on a shelf, up high away from his reach so that he didn’t have to touch or look at it anymore. He asked if he could share another poem. I said, “of course.” Here’s what he said:

“Hello sir, could you spare a little change?
No…please wait…let me reframe.
I asked, could you spare some change…
But it’s not money that I crave
What I need the most is your thinking rearranged
That is why I’m asking, can you spare a little Change?”

Of course, at first I was thinking, here we go, he wants my wallet to open up….Yet I was completely rearranged that moment in my own thinking. He was sharing how he wished people could shift their perspective of compassion. I saw my own stigma about what he was after come to life, yet as I walked away I couldn’t help thinking about that first poem he recited about a catastrophic loss in his life. And how that loss kept him in such a traumatic state of grief he was not able to find a way to change his situation. We never ever can know another’s suffering, although we all judge it anyway. No one knows the pain of another until you’ve lived their life and experiences. However, don’t we act and think like we do? Like we know another’s story enough to tell them what they’re doing wrong?

I met Robert, a homeless vet on the street today in Englewood. He changed my day. He shifted my thinking. I took his hand and told him he was brilliant… could he email me that poem he wrote? He laughed his toothless smile, saying, “Ma’am , I have no phone, computer, I have no home.” But he told me he sure loved meeting my dog Samson and he wished he had a dog. I shook his hand and told him he made my day. He starting skipping backwards in glee hearing the fact that he made my day. Joyfully he said, “Let’s see, I need another poem… roses are red violets are blue…” then he paused searching for the rest of the words…I finished it for him and said, “I’m so glad that I met you!”

He laughed and laughed and jumped up and down in delight. I thanked him again for making my day as I walked back to my car. I thank him for the gift he gave me… he had no idea.