Down on his luck
it was clear,
he was down on his luck.
I gave him a buck
cause he was down on his luck.
He looked blind, of a feeble mind,
clothes in tatters.
I was young, smart, refined.
Life was going my way,
while he had been left behind
He thanked me for my charity.
I nodded and vaguely smiled.
If only I had some clarity,
I would not have walked away
with a false sense of vanity.
The evening rush hour brought me upon
the beggar man sitting on his rag cloth.
Still where I left him this morn.
“Bless you my dear child,”
I heard a whisper soft.
Surprised, I turned around,
how could he know I was the one.
Was he a “seeing blind man”
like many on Bombay streets found?
Anything for a buck? I was dumbfound.
I wore no perfume, nor the same shoes.
Some days walked stealthily and smiled,
or skipped that bridge on some ruse.
Yet, everytime I passed, I heard his voice mild–
“Bless you my dear child.”
Resigned, I began giving him alms
on the foot bridge he perched upon.
Daily, I gathered blessings in my palms
from a kind face in the rush hour storm,
till one day he was gone.
Troubled, I querried, “where has the old man gone?”
The same beggars and food carts stood around,
yet, no one had seen an old man, I found.
“How could this be?” I wondered out loud.
I saw him everyday-day in, day out.
For the first time I looked carefully
at beggars, urchins and city’s poverty
The eyeless had vanished ruefully
and while no one had seen him for sure,
he was not a figment of my imagination, surely.
So, I honored the memory
of a lost old man in a faceless humanity.
I gave away gladly to charity.
Everytime I shared, I heard a whisper surely,
“Bless you my dear child.” with clarity.
________________________________________________________________
Sherona Varulkar is a poet, memoirist, abstract artist and a photographer. She grew up in a Bene Israel Jewish community in Mumbai, India, lived in Israel and now calls Long Island her home. Sherona is currently an intern at Lilith Magazine’s "New 40" 2024 cohort. Her works have been published in various Indian, Jewish and feminist magazines and newsletters.
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