She looked at me with pain filled eyes
She seemed to read my mind
“I could be you”, she mouthed the words,
“Some place, some other time.”
I drove right through the changing light
Horns blaring as I went.
I had to make just one more store
Before the day was spent.
I swerved in time to miss a man
Who held a cardboard sign.
A homeless man, who’d work for food.
Thank God I’d braked in time.
I parked my ride and looked around
Then groaned at what I saw.
A sea of cars parked everywhere
The world was at the mall!
“Oh, Lord,” I thought, “it comes again.”
The season of excess.
When want and greed are king and queen
And reign in selfishness.
Then smiling wide, I grabbed my purse
This was my time to shop.
And for the homeless on the streets
I had no time for thought!
But just outside the store front door
A homeless woman sat.
She was dirty and disgusting
With a child upon her lap.
She looked at me with pain filled eyes
She seemed to read my mind.
“I could be you”, she mouthed the words,
“Some place, some other time.”
I turned my head, I walked right past
My conscience now was sore.
But with each purchase that I made
I’d see her at the door.
Then passing by a manger scene
I had to gaze awhile
For the Virgin and the Baby
Looked like the woman and her child.
Remembering that pain filled look
And how she’d read my mind,
“I could be you,” she mouthed the words
Some place, some other time!”
With no more thought I turned around
My Christmas I would share!
But the woman and her baby,
They were no longer there.
Just a note upon the sidewalk
A scribbled cardboard sign,
“I could be you”, she wrote to me,
“Some place, some other time.”
Donna Sue Berry
December 10th, 2010
Merry Christmas to all my Family and Friends!!!
Luke 2: For this day is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger.
