My Neighbor

my neighbor wants to teach me

how to defend myself against

meteors, floods and hyperspace activity.

maybe he can sense how susceptible I am

to all of these things

and more.

 

I turn my head

as I walk down our street,

cast in lamp-light and too-few stars,

to tell him I have no money.

 

            how much did you pay to be born?

he calls after me. I couldn’t say.

            ZERO

he shouts.

           

            yet look at how much you got for nothing:

                        eyes, ears, heart, lungs, feet and voice.

            you have so much!

            so what can you spare?

 

I find a dollar in my pocket and give it to him.

he bends down and picks up a pebble

off of the sidewalk we are standing on.

 

he cradles it in his old, old hands

and whispers to it

as if he didn't want to wake it.

he presses the pebble into my palm

and says

            NOW, you are safe.