The young man is
skinny and crooked,
his teeth angled like a broken fence
and as yellow as piano keys unconnected to
wire.
One ear sticks out, the other folded flat
against his head like the broken wing of a
plane,
his buck teeth curving his mouth into a
perpetual smile.
Released from the carnival, he walks
through a field
in late afternoon until he stumbles
because of a lazy eye,
his gait drifting ever left, ever left.
On the fresh spring earth, he inhales the
new grass,
marvels at its bright green color, its
odor of birth
and the promise of a day when salvation
will sing.
The world turns by a few degrees of arc
so that starlight from diamonds strikes
his retina,
illuminating his brain and teaching his
body,
crumpled like yesterday’s newspaper,
the ways of God, the humility born of
pain.
He looks at the precious gifts of sky and
earth
that so few others are ever able to
attain.
Slowly he kneels, then stands on the
untroubled sod.
He knows that the next stutter, inevitable
as the sun and the rain,
will bring him even closer to the mind of
God.
~William Hammett
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