The Beggar
It was the coat that drew me to his side, that cold September day.
He leaned against the wall, inside a porch that barely kept the wind and rain away.
An army coat, just like my dad’s, that came back from the war.
I hoped it kept him just a warm as it kept me so many years before.
He leaned against the wall, inside a porch that barely kept the wind and rain away.
An army coat, just like my dad’s, that came back from the war.
I hoped it kept him just a warm as it kept me so many years before.
I dropped some coins into his cup to ease my passage, as I walked away.
But as I glanced into his eyes, I watched him struggle with some words he had to say.
“God is bleeding into life”, he said. “And life is struggling to escape the mud.
There is nothing in this world which can be made without our sweat and tears and blood!”
But as I glanced into his eyes, I watched him struggle with some words he had to say.
“God is bleeding into life”, he said. “And life is struggling to escape the mud.
There is nothing in this world which can be made without our sweat and tears and blood!”
His aura stank of urine and insanity, and so, I walked away until he called me back.
“Your poetry is shite!”, he said, “You write of flowers and butterflies like some insipid hack!”
“What can you know, old man, of what I do and who I am?”
He said, “I’ve walked the lonely roads since mankind first began”
“Your poetry is shite!”, he said, “You write of flowers and butterflies like some insipid hack!”
“What can you know, old man, of what I do and who I am?”
He said, “I’ve walked the lonely roads since mankind first began”
“You think that speaking nice and being good will save you from your misery and pain,
But you will walk as many roads as I and birth will come again and yet again.
Your life may be a fairy tale, but fairy tales are born in blood and sweat and slime.
The grimy, gritty glories of this world will last until the very end of time.”
But you will walk as many roads as I and birth will come again and yet again.
Your life may be a fairy tale, but fairy tales are born in blood and sweat and slime.
The grimy, gritty glories of this world will last until the very end of time.”
“You bore me with your godly prayers and clean-pressed trousers on the shiny pews.
You tire me with your candles and your bells and all your failed attempts to be a better ‘you’
You drive me to distraction with your chanting and your whistles and your drums.
The only truth is you, - and what you do is what your life becomes.”
You tire me with your candles and your bells and all your failed attempts to be a better ‘you’
You drive me to distraction with your chanting and your whistles and your drums.
The only truth is you, - and what you do is what your life becomes.”
“I became this world which we both walk and we both share.
Each moment of my birth was made of misery and pain and dark despair.
You bleed my blood and cry my tears for you and I are one.
This is the mystery which Man has wondered at since Mankind was begun.”
Each moment of my birth was made of misery and pain and dark despair.
You bleed my blood and cry my tears for you and I are one.
This is the mystery which Man has wondered at since Mankind was begun.”
“Forget your worries and your foolish plans and simply be!
You never will be greater than you are, for I am you and you are me.
The measures and the rules with which you gauge your lives are false beyond compare.”
I closed my eyes to still my spinning head, but when I looked again, he was no longer there!
You never will be greater than you are, for I am you and you are me.
The measures and the rules with which you gauge your lives are false beyond compare.”
I closed my eyes to still my spinning head, but when I looked again, he was no longer there!
Patrick W Kavanagh
25/03/2018
Art by Bill Oliver.
25/03/2018
Art by Bill Oliver.
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