Essay Published through Poetic Power

"No More Snow"

The man’s grey beard stood out against his oversized dark brown jacket and garbage bag bed. My mom and I had stopped for a coffee at Au Bon Pain in New York and ended up sitting at a table next to him outside. “Can I buy you something to eat?” she asked him “Something hot” she added, since it was mid February and the nights were still cold. With a little coaxing, he accepted.

“Thank you” he added with a toothless smile. The three of us walked into Au Bon Pain and he chose tomato soup and an asiago roll to accompany it. My mom paid and we made our way outside. Before we parted, he turned to me and asked me about a storm that had just hit the Northeast. “I hope your house wasn’t damaged,” he said to me. Surprised, I stuttered out a reply. “We… yeah… our house is fine and so are we.” We both smiled and as we separated he said,  “God bless you”.

Six months later I was volunteering at my temple. I had just finished folding and sorting clothing to give to Darfur refugees and their families. I was about to leave when a man in a white shirt gestured to me and said in broken English “Come, get food!” I sat down with him and four other men. The man in the white shirt struggled with his knife and fork, but persevered. He cut his burger to fit a hotdog bun.

"I’m going to get you a hamburger bun!" I blurted out. Each man crouched over his plate of food, uncomfortable and unsure of what to say with his limited English. I craved conversation with them; I wanted to keep their words safe in my mind to use them for inspiration. After I got the man in the white shirt a bun, the others slowly got up and each took one for himself. This brought a smile to my lips because I knew I had connected with them. It was insignificant and it wouldn’t help them face a new world in America but it would be something they-and I- would remember forever. When he had finished eating, the first man turned to me.

“No more snow,” he said. I waited for him to continue. “The sun shines where I come from”. I smiled at him and said “I hope it stays sunny too” and we shared a tacit understanding that we weren’t just talking about the weather.