A Tale Of Change

A Tale Of Change

“Excuse me, Young Man, can I please have some change?”

I looked at this man and said, “Yes sir, you may,

But whether or not the change will take hold,

Is anyone's guess, for this story's untold.

We can change the way we perceive the poor,

But does that mean they will receive any more?”

He looked up at me with his rheumatised eyes,

And his look said to me, “Quit telling me lies.”

And I felt for him then, this old man with no home,

This man of no wealth that people had left all alone.

I pulled my hand from my pocket and gave him a gift,

The change that overcame him was enjoyably swift.

The look in his eyes, as they brimmed up with tears,

Of all of the hurt he'd endured through the years,

That look in his eyes, that look of despair,

That look of one who's been treated unfair.

It all disappeared when I gave him that gift,

And all of a sudden his mood started to lift.

His soul had been changed, by one little gesture,

And all of that hate that had sat there and festered,

Seemed to vanish away, float off on the air,

When suddenly he knew, that somebody did care.

The gift that I gave him, was nothing to me,

In fact we can all give it, poor and wealthy.

And if that one little gift can change someone's life,

Gather all of the wrongs and make them all right,

Then surely we all should be sharing it round,

From the ones at the top, to the ones on the ground.

I smiled at him then, and he returned it to me,

And that was just brilliant to see.

A smile on the face of an unfortunate soul,

Someone who most people see as a troll.

Someone whom nobody had ever had the time,

This somebody who had received this nothing of mine.

As I left him standing there, just where he'd been,

I'd given him this gift, it was now time to leave.

“Thank you Young Man, this is better than cash,

'Cos now I can choose to pass it on or give back.

But whatever I do, it is going to be strange,

Someone like me handing out change.”

I smiled at him then, and couldn't thank him enough,

Because all I had given him, was a hug.

By J. Barrett