Sunday Muse -- Help Me

 Another Chance 

I was leaving from the courthouse that sunshiny day, when I heard a faint voice.   It was saying to me, seemingly from someone on the inside, "Mister, could you spare me a dollar?"  

I looked around and from a small window, through rusty bars, and I saw a young man with a scurvy beard and unkempt mustache.  As I walked towards the window I was reminded of another young man on the outer skirts of the law.  

He was a hitchhiker thumbing for a ride on the Iowa Interstate.   When he got in the car he thanked me profusely and told me of  the patrol car that had just passed going the other way.  He feared the patrol would turn back where it had a place and haul him in for unlawful thumbing on the freeway. 

Well, this young man today was already in the hoosegow  for I knew not what.  So as I began to peel out a buck he began to tell his story.  Seems he wasn't in trouble at all. 

He too was hitchhiking to get back east to visit his mom one last time.  He was sleeping in jails across the country and they'd feed him two meals, evening feast and morning breakfast before he left.

I took one more look at this fellow,  he seemed a bit familiar to me.  Then like a flash we both smiled and hugged through the bars.  It had been years since that day in Iowa.  World travelers of different breeds meet again. 

(A bit of truth, I did save a cross country hitchhiker from being arrested in Iowa back in 1971 by giving him a ride.  Going around the world, he also ate and spent his nights in small town jails who regularly offer free room and board for a night.  Lots more friendly and wholesome than bedding down hungry under a bridge.)

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  - Poem Copyright, Jimmiehov 2021, All Rights Reserved 

 - I am linked with Fireblossom at the Sunday Muse #152 for the photo inspiration, http://thesundaymuse.blogspot.com/2021/03/sunday-muse-152.html?m=1