God Bless

God bless, miss.

From this man.

This raggedy man,

Holding five dollars

in his wrinkled hand.

Five dollars that I just fished

from the pool of trinkets

and change

 in the middle console

of my new car.

And he is old

And I am young

yet I have everything

and he has nothing.

God bless, miss.

God bless me?

Why?

I don’t need it

it’s not my life that needs blessing

and his generosity startles me.

Bless me?

He is the one in need of a blessing!

Not me!

He is!

Is he not?

…

Or maybe I am

…

Maybe we all are.

But God bless, miss.

It’s not a thank you,

Not in so many words.

Those with change to dole out

we comfort ourselves with that notion.

That notion

that we deserve thanks for handing

 a stranger

the bill in our consoles.

They’ll just spend it on beer.

They’re conning you.

It's their choice to be out there

begging.

Maybe.

Maybe I am naïve

But I doubt it.

Maybe it is their choice.

But I think

they are better off for it.

The choice to thrive off of human generosity.

Because that is what they’re doing.

But its also

a fair warning.

God bless.

Good luck.

It’s the same!

There’s no way

to truly live

unless you embrace your generosity.

Unless you pass your generosity on

and realize that you are not as fortunate

as you’d like to believe

when you see

that man.

That raggedy man

begging

blessing

the world.

Handing out truth

and hope

and luck

to those who might understand

that it isn’t the man holding your loose change

that needs God’s blessings.

It never was.

So.

God bless, world.

From this girl.

This raggedy man’s

message trapped inside a girl,

Holding your five dollars

in her outstretched hand.

Five dollars that I just fished

from the pool of raggedy men’s minds

 laid behind you

where you’ve tried to write your

generous deed off

as a good reason to own

your new car.

And this façade has grown old

And the era for change is young

so take the five dollars I’m handing you here

and discover true generosity

as I

and this raggedy man

are engrained in your mind:

God bless, miss.

God bless.