The difference between the 'si tiene'

And the 'no tiene' is sometimes 

Just a state of mind.

One of the poorest men I ever knew

Offered to give me his slingshot.

"I hate to take this from you," I said,

When he insisted.

I wanted it very badly,

But I wanted it just for fun,

And he was using it to provide extra meat for his family

That food stamps didn't supply.

He would take a ball bearing or two and go down by the creek,

And quietly shoot a turkey or a squirrel,

Without a gunshot going off to signal to a game warden.

"Oh I have thousands of these!" he said.

"Where?" I stammered in disbelief,

Glancing around the two room trailer

He shared with two sisters and their five children 

And his mother and father.

"Right out here!" he said.

And led me out the back door.

He pointed to a young oak tree

Where he had tied hundreds of red gasoline rags.

Everyone of them marked the spot

Of a "perfect slingshot waiting to happen," he said.

And so he could afford to be generous.

-jenn