Saturday, November 04, 2006

Payback

Payback
     
Everyday he stands on the corner, holding
his sign up.” Will work for food”, it reads.
I’ve tried to ignore it, but he needs
some aid-and gathers his gaze towards me, old and
weary his face. Pock lines, Years of weathered disgrace,
substance abuse, hardship and troubled days revealed.
I see myself some years ago, dying on the bloody field,
the Angel of Death caressing my ashen face,

plucked from darkness by the peasant poor
on a rain-drenched field in Viet Nam.
It must be my time to settle old scores.
I ask him his name, he tells me it’s “Sam”,
I wave him towards me as I open the door.
“Thanks mister” he says, “Thought no one gave a damn”!




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