The pelting rain and lightning streaks <br />Didn't matter in my cozy car. <br />Containers of Chinese food nestled <br />On the seat next to packages <br />From the shopping mall. Home was not far. <br /> <br />The radio spoke of a rocket ship <br />Plunging through outer space. <br />What a time to be alive! <br />And then I saw his face! <br /> <br />The old man sat in a wheelchair, <br />In a shirt and pants that reached down <br />To stumps that ended at his knees. <br />I wondered, with all our country's wealth, <br />Why can't we care for such as these? <br /> <br />I got out of the car and walked <br />To him, and offered him my help. <br />He didn't speak, but shook his head no. <br />I sensed he no longer cared, <br />and wanted me to go. <br /> <br />Something made me look up. <br />I couldn't believe what I saw. <br />An image of Christ floated above him. <br />Stunned, I walked back to my car. <br />I wondered, why didn't others see Him? <br /> <br />Then I realized to see Him, <br />You had to walk up close enough <br />To talk to that legless old man, <br />As he sat in the rain, with bare head bowed. <br />Did the rain feel good on his parched lips, <br />Or of wheelchairs and rocket ships? <br /> <br />This is a true story of an experience I had years ago. I didn't expect <br />to be believed - I could hardly believe it myself - so I submerged <br />it into a fictional poem. The facts are, it was raining, and I was <br />driving. I saw the legless old man in a wheelchair in the middle of <br />what was then a field. I was concerned. I went to him and offered <br />him every kind of help I could think of, but he didn't want help. I <br />sensed he wanted to be alone. Something told me to look up, <br />and I saw the image of Christ floating above him. I walked back to my <br />car and looked back. It was then that I realized that from the road, <br />the image of Him only looked like a watery patch of rainbow. I wasn't <br />stunned, but at the same time the impact of this experience slowly <br />sifted through my mind over a period of time.<br /><br />Mary Naylor<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/of-wheelchairs-and-rocket-ships-revised/
