I saw them on the sidewalk, man and wife and little girl, <br />and, like the rightful man I am, I smiled <br />at the little girl's sweet innocence, <br />and glanced at the man; <br /> <br />he wore a workman's cap, his body had the look <br />of muscle that has learned <br />the lean, hard lesson of the bone; <br />he saw me there, <br />a young old man, standing by the library door, <br />and something in my gaze gained his respect; <br />he nodded once, as to an equal; <br />I nodded back, the single nod that honors: <br />I saw that those he walked with <br />had the gift of all he had; <br />and, suddenly, I knew <br />his wife's fear for his fragile, sweet, tough frame, <br />and her treasure, in the rightness of his way. <br /> <br />I saw in him, born of his love for them, <br />the fire inside, eternal: <br />the will indomitable, that would not swerve <br />from its sweet choice of sheltering, <br />though nightmare come; <br />that, in the end, would interpose itself, as shield <br />against that cold, relentless wind <br />that blows flesh, hope, the very bone away. <br /> <br />Sweet chariot of flame, <br />this golden passion of the clay: <br />My child, I give me: I am yours forever; <br />My Darling! though the world should pass away.<br /><br />John Libertus<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/man-5/
