Poem for Monday: 'All the Same'

by Honor Davis

There is a man at the road's end.
He'll tell you a story for your smile,
and a joke for your laugh.

He sits on a crate,
and shares food with the strays.
But never the birds.

There's a lad by the river's mouth,
always painting,
never talking,
sometimes pausing-
To wait for the wind
or to feed a pestering pigeon.

He gives paintings to strangers,
that sit on crates,
in exchange for a story.