The Vagrant

He stumbles on the subway Initially I cringe I'm put off by the way he smells From alcoholic binge He mumbles incoherent I start to feel ashamed I slide my hand in my front pocket Fumbling for some change But I don't think he's asking And now I feel confused Why suddenly he's deathly still In contemplative muse It's then I sensed my pity That's founded in this thought This vagrant's smell is rank with failure Surely mine is not But just as surely comes the notion That my thought is wrong That maybe this man's always been My equal all along And in my mind I contemplate Why I refused to see My world won't be so bad a place If love is given free And so my judgment loosens as I know not where he's been A brotherhood in harmony Absolves the need for sin I owe this man his right to freedom The same that he owes me I spare myself the cost of pain And simply let him be And from that moment on I'd ponder My inner vagrancy But was it me who smiled at him Or him who smiled at me?