I Saw a Man

I saw a man walk slowly down the road,

A husk of self, crippled and alone,

His body bent and broken like a twig,

One foot a stump encased in a black boot

That trailed along and scraped the reddened dust.

Why did the wind not take him in its arms,

How could he stay so grounded yet so frail?

Did some malignant puppeteer create

This grotesque form, this caricature of man

Or did his karma necessitate this trial?

The tears poured from my eyes, they would not stop

The cataract of sorrow from my heart,

For as before I realized he was I,

Being of my being, soul of my soul

Who lives in me as I limp and seek my way.

I cannot ease the pain nor can I heal

The wounds of a weary world now gone awry.

I reason not why we live and how we die

But know that all my days are blind until

I find the truth that all this seeming hides.