SAM TAKES A STEP

A proud Army veteran, whose injury claimed,
the use of his legs, yet his heart still remained.
Sam was the last on my newspaper route.
He enjoyed explaining, “What life’s all about.”

I was barely fourteen and a little naïve.
Things he would tell me were hard to conceive.
I would see him there waiting, hoping to talk.
At times I saw tears as he wished he could walk.

He said, “Life will offer you no guarantees.”
He was always polite, thank you and please.
There were times I tried to sneak past his door.
He’d have some new book for me to explore.

“Life is a matter of inches,” he’d say.
“An inch to the left, I’d be standing today.
On the other hand, son, an inch to the right,
And I would have met my maker that night.”

He asked every day, or so it would seem,
if I could explain and identify my dream.
“Things change quickly, you must understand.
Life doesn’t always turn out like you planned.”

Then came the day, I heard sirens blare.
I ran to the house but Sam wasn’t there.
He’d fallen, I heard the paramedics say,
his oxygen tank merely inches away.

A week passed by, then a note from his wife.
She thanked me for bringing such joy to his life.
“He cherished each day the time that you took.
He wrote you a message inside of this book.”

An old tattered Bible, Sam kept in his chair,
“Rejoice my young friend. I am walking on air!
I leave you this treasure, I expect you to read.
An inch of God’s Word is all you will need.”

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copyright @ Kevin Pace 2005 www.wordsdomatter.com