Russel, Beggar, 19

For five cents, you can get a philosophy
For ten cents, I'll give you a poem
For fifteen cents, a democracy
And for a dollar, kid
You can take me home

I'm not appreciative of anything
Just 'cause I got nothing
Don't mean something's something
I gotta give thanks for

Look up the words
In the dictionary

Funny they don't have
A dictionary for silence

All the things a silence can mean

The reason I'm here
Begging on the streets
Is cuz I didn't understand
The different kinds of silence

So when my Dad said--

'Did you touch my wife?'

Regarding my stepmom
Not my mother
Who is dead
Who was dead
Who is dead
Who was dead

Hard to tell
The difference now

I thought the brief pause
That followed the question

'Did you touch my wife?'

Was a joking pause
A kidding pause
A laughing pause
Or perhaps a pregnant pause
About to give birth
To a berth of giggles

But I did NOT think it was
A serious pause

And because I didn't understand that pause
The silence living in that pause
Came out and bit me
And hit me so hard
I wound up on the streets
Looking for change in time

Time is something I cannot appreciate
Because time has not been kind to me

Today was kind to me
Ten centers, one poem
But time itself
Is not kind

It is...unrelenting

My father does not care where I am
He believes I have transformed into Santa Clause
And now he no longer has a son
Just a lying wife
Who tells him
That men touch her
When all they do is ask
If they can stop touching her

Time and things
And cents
And sense
And numbers
And dates
Are all
Unrelenting

Denting cars
And people
With permanent dents

And that's your philosophy
Now where's my five cents?