Another Beggar Poem

[Brownlie]

I saw a tom o’ bedlam
by the freeway off ramp.
The figure had no human form,
But he was assembled from a wispy visage.
 
His penury may have been mingled
With an itch that kept him from the salvation army,
but there is no right or wrong here,
only a figure that I see a few times every month.
 
I place his outline, hidden, for remembrance.
Then I see him with his cardboard sign
Displaying letters that are done uneven in a black sharpie,
And somehow falling in-between a set of nonexistent lines.  
 
Regardless of the blaring sun that makes a chrome rim blinding,
He’s there absolving all the guilty who seek to buy salvation,
 And you can hear him selling friendship with a bit of slang.

[Erthona]

Why he needs to be a ghost (if that is even what you are saying) I don't know, but the rest is spot on. I like the idea of the beggar priest. People come to him, give him some change to feel good about themselves, or as you say, "to buy salvation". Yes the other side of the coin. Neither side is without blame.

Dale