HOMELESS SMILES

I had only eight one-dollar bills in my purse that day.

The too-battered man standing at roadside a few feet away

caught my attention with his too-battered sign held 

close to his chest, on crudely-cut cardboard dirtied 

like him, over time; both dusted clear of all grime.

“Smile today” was the message he carried so closely.

A message so needed, so welcomed, so worthy.

Crossing over a lane to reach his side, traffic waiting

for the light to change, let me and my car, squeeze by.

I passed the dollar bills to an outstretched hand.

Then, the grey-haired man in need of a cut, 

leaned in to say “Thank you. God bless you.Have a nice day.”

The phrase a common lingo in the homeless way.

His eyes were lit from inside and he smiled, not trying to hide

his humanity, his sanity, his grace so sublime.

I smiled back and told him that I loved his sign.

Pulling out a second sign he had hidden behind the first,

I read the line, “Always Smile” and felt his thirst

to be seen and recognized and able to offer something to me.

Tearfully smiling in a moment of grace 

I thanked him the gift he had given to me,

a smile I had unknowingly needed desperately,

the “greatest gift I had received in very long time.”

a thousands suns lit his eyes and opened mine.

Homeless people need to help others as much as you and I.

They may not have shelter, nor food, nor rest;

yet, they still continue to give their best.

They watch us hungrily as we drive by on the road

They hunger not only for what we can give.

They hunger for what they can give to us.

It unburdens their load.

We are in this world together, one smile at a time.

A message of love from one man, alone by the road.