Every day you sit
on the same bench
amid the dead.
Your pride won’t let you ask
with words, but
your eyes plead.
A few coins now,
a dollar later
will feed you for a day.
The decades of your life
are hidden.
No one ever asks.
Yet you smile,
grateful for any recognition
of your presence.
This is a drawing, done in 1975, of a homeless man. He spent almost every day in the Loyalist Burial Grounds in downtown Saint John, New Brunswick. I saw him almost every day while on my way to and from work, and gave him money when I could. He was invariably polite and grateful for any help.
He posed proudly for the photo on which this drawing is based. This drawing hangs in my living room to this day. The poem was written in 2023.
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