I Won’t But Someone Should is a people poem dedicated to a homeless man I see every time I go shopping in town.
I Won’t But Someone Should
In clear, fat letters, the cardboard sign says:
DON'T BE SCARED, I DON'T BITE, TALK TO ME. It's sitting on
the lap of a homeless man, short back and sides, dreadlocks
on top.
He's sitting on the pavement leaning against a glass pane
screening scenes of friends sipping coffee and munching lunch.
He knows the staff. They know how he likes the coffee he
buys every day in the paper cup he later perches down
beside him in case some passersby's heart runs away with some
loose change for him. That's how he'll pay for tomorrow's coffee.
DON'T BE SCARED, I DON'T BITE, TALK TO ME. My detective
sensibilities tell me he's educated but not what went wrong.
Must find out but haven't taken him up on his offer yet.
At least, I often see him talking to someone. He seems a very
chatty fellow, gets all animated when conversing, but I'm a
coward, pick up the pace whenever I walk by.
IM NOT SCARED, NOR DO I THINK HE'LL BITE, but I won't talk to
him. Someone else should.