a plea ignored

Today,
I passed a man
Who was huddled on a stoop
In the fetal position
"Please," he said,
"I just want something to eat."

Well, he didn't say it
Not really, anyway.
He cried it
He pleaded it
He begged for his life.
And nobody helped him.

I didn't help him.

I quickened my pace
And his words echoed
Again
And again in my head until
I was too disgusted with myself.

Why didn't I stop?
Why didn't anyone stop?
Why did an oncoming man
Take the time to comment on
A woman's body
But not give a dying man a second glance?

Any one of the thousands of
People who passed that stoop
Could have stopped.
But only a few probably did.

Maybe he was a drug addict
In need of a fix,
I tell myself,
Trying to make sense.
Maybe he has committed
Horrible crimes, which
Left him a broken, penny-less man,
I comfort myself.

But I am not the one who needs comfort.
All I know, is this:

He was desperate.
Nobody cared.