Home » Poems » Andrew Crisci » Undeserved Generosity

Undeserved Generosity

In his wealthy days, he looked down
on homeless people and disgusted by their
stench, he cried out, " Take a warm bath! " 
He kept on walking fixing his black hat
tossed upward by a capricious, wild wind.

He dressed well and passerby admired him,
he turned many ladies heads with his stylish
Armani dark suit and Gucci dark sunglasses.
but older guys stared at him with much envy:
he was in his early sixties, but looked younger. 

A hungry man sensing his greed shouted,
" Sir, do you have a dollar to buy me coffee? "
" Filthy bum, you are too lazy to get a job! "
He replied with much indignation in his voice.
" I was like you wearing the best suits money
could buy, then I lost my job on Wall Street! 
I am forced to beg...where is human kindness? "
He spoke those words with great bitterness. 

He wasn't moved by what he had heard
and muttered, " They are all the same,
freeloaders fooling idiots who give them
dollars and they in turn buy cigarettes
and alcohol; who is the clever one?

Months passed and the homeless guy
still begged, some gave him quarters
and dollars, others kept on walking;
he didn't see that stylish gentleman
who despised his condition and insulted
him with nasty looks and unkind words,  
where had he gone? He had to ask somebody.
" I think I saw him today on Lexington Avenue."
A passerby shouted running to the subway.

The teen told him he lost all he had 
when the Stock Market dropped to its 
lowest in August, another Black Tuesday,*
then he pointed where he was laying,
" He's on next block in a cardboard box! "
The homeless man deeply wondered.

He got up, went to take a shower
and put on a suit somebody gave
to him along with black shades;
He looked very rich, everyone was
impressed by his attire, and best
of all, he smelled good: he was alive.

" Good morning, Sir, can I offer you 
anything, coffee and a hot hero *? " 
He asked him by hiding his identity.
" Yes, please...I haven't eaten in days! "
Nobody is showing mercy, they look
away if I were a sewer rat looking for
food on this sidewalk of cuisine smell."

" Wait, I will right back with your food! 
He ran across the busy avenue and
returned with a bag full of sweet cakes
and a pastrami hero; the coffee steamed 
in the chilly afternoon, it seemed a
Manhattan' street giving off puffs of stream
from under the sewers during Fall and winter.

" Thank you for your kindness, kind man! "
The once-rich-man said to the stranger,
he seemed sorry as if his greedy heart had
had found underserved generosity which 
he himself had denied...remembering how
desperate that man was when he asked
for money to get coffee and stay warm.

 
* A Hero is a New York or New Jersey
Hero Sandwich
* Black Tuesday happened on October 29, 1929

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