A Failure Of Charity

Checking into a cheap motel

by a gas station on a crisp night,

I noticed a man leaning on a wall.

He approached and asked if I had extra food.

I gave him a banana and some bread 

from what I had been eating on the front seat.

His car had broken down and he was broke.

I found my room and came back to move my car.

He was gone, and I think, to this day,

how I could have given him fifty dollars,

an old jacket and some gloves I didn’t need. How

I could have said: You’ll get through this miserable night.

Instead, it is mine forever.