Moment

I beg on the street:

May I have a moment?

Given one, I say

Thank you.
Thank you
for giving me
this moment.
I will take it 
and pocket it
and hold it close 
until I need it.

Perhaps I will never need it
and if so I will keep it
until the end of my life.
I might want it again then,
or I might not; if the latter is so

it will become my last will’s
only bequest: 

.”..in the matter of the moment
I was given freely
by another to use as I pleased, 
I am pleased to pass on to… “

Some folks will say this is ridiculous;

those are the ones
who have likely had
a life full of moments
in such abundance
that they spent them foolishly.

Still, they always seem to die
still rich in them, flush with them, 
enough moments remaining at the end
to line their caskets with time enough to waste,
even in the grave; meanwhile

the rest of us who have had to savor
the lean banquets of our days, our stolen
slim margins, our nails bitten to blood
waiting for checks to clear and bills
to hold off one more day; those of us
without many moments of our own — 
I speak for all of us when I say that

if I may have a moment
it will be golden to me,
if I may have a moment
know that I will not spend it foolishly.

And if it goes unspent
I will offer it to you, my love,
heir of all my stolen moments.
We never had enough time together
between hard jobs and long commutes 
and worry and famine and struggle.

If someday we can no longer share
stolen or begged
or borrowed moments, rest assured 
that I shall leave all I have
to you.