I gave the stranger a cigarette.
“That was generous of you”
“I just hastened a man’s death”
I made myself an integral part of
some disease set on killing him, this stranger.
Reading National Geographic to learn about
the world.
A welfare check, just so I know my place.
Brushed teeth, cleaning behind the door
that never gets closed. A junk
drawer offers an afternoon retreat.
You are not what you own. You
are the differences you have made in
the lives of others.