Sad Blue Eyes

Sad Blue Eyes.

Like a wisp of fog she floats

past the line at the cinema.

Her tattered clothes

bedraggled from constant wear.

I notice her beautiful blue eyes,

almost out of place  in her gaunt face.

She looks thin and hungry,

Certainly malnourished

Those sad blue  eyes

begging the patrons,

give me a dollar or

your loose change.

But done in silence not a word

Just a simple

handwritten sign saying

homeless and hungry.

Some patrons dig

 into their pockets

tossing a coin at her.

She scurries to collect them

as the coins roll on the sidewalk.

Others look away

or shake their head.

I look at her face closely

as she passes by me,

those sad blue eyes

peering into my soul.

I know her, I am sure

I have seen her before.

I remember now,

she was by the bus terminal

her sign then read

three children

no home no food.

She was like a ghost then

in the winter grey day

just a soft mist ghostlike floating by.

The line for the cinema moved

toward the large neon

lighting above the facade

beckoning the crowd.

Julia Roberts and George Clooney

smiled down from a billboard.

She reminded me of my daughter

I needed to go home

and tell her I loved her.

I thrust my twenty dollars

into her hand.

and left the line. 

Turning for home

no longer in the mood for

fantasy and flickering screens.

I had nothing more to give her

Feeling sad and inadequate

I returned to my room

and wrote this story.