Panhandling

image borrowed from bing

Panhandling

“What will happen is they’ll go without, or they’ll panhandle,

or they’ll steal.”--Roger Miller.

“Who the hell are you?”

asks the homeless,

               the panhandler,

                     the downtrodden,

                           the oppressed,

                                 the suppressed,

“Why do you have & I have not?”

“The answer, sir, is simple, archaic yet futuristic;

I am you,

              another old soul on another

life journey.

I am a seeker, who

                        searches for tattered shreds

                                                                     of the Big Truth;

like that guy who walks for hours in a field

with his metal detector, 

& becomes elated

when he finds a Civil War belt buckle.

I am all the choices I’ve made,

             the effort I expended, 

             the people

whose lives I have impacted;

I am your teacher & your student,

        your brother & your father.

I am judge,

                 love,

        dissident, 

                 friend

        clenched fist,

                 compassion,

        kick from a work boot,

                 confidant,

        competition,

                 companion,

        team member,

                 empathy,

        loose cannon,

                 samaritan,

        observer,

                 helping hand,

        disobedience,

                 sympathy,

        adversary,

                 generosity,

        roadblock,

                 rebellious,

        hope,

                 impediment

        & laughter.”

“What?”

“ I have been black, white, red, & yellow,

practiced several religions,

been crucified, 

been burned at the stake,

been canonized & excommunicated,

stood with the crowd on the mount

listening to Jesus, rode with John Brown,

& have spent time in Buchenwald, 

                                  Atlantis

                                  Alexandria

                                  Babylon

                                  Boston,

                                  Havana 

                                  & Chicago.”

“Bullshit.”

“ I sense that I have been an ancient tree,

a spirit guide,

a slave owner & a slave,

no stranger to the sting of the lash,

the weight of the chains,

a white wolverine,

a red-tailed hawk,

a warrior who stood proudly with Spartacus,

                                                     William Wallace,

                                                     Garibaldi, 

                                                      Juarez & Patton.”

“Christ, you make my head hurt.”

“ I am nothing, yet everything,

no one yet everybody--

I’ve had wings, hooves, & claws.

I wrestle my demons

I am God,

as most certainly

you are.”

“But do you have any spare change?”

“ No, but what I do have for you

is a pair of hamburgers, some coffee, & a hug.”

“Fuck you.”

“ But gosh, we hardly know each other.”

“ Leave me alone!”

“ Be careful what you wish for.”

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over on dVerse Poets Poetics

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