I met Bob for the first time<\/p>\n
Four long years ago<\/p>\n
He had a car then<\/p>\n
He walked slow but deliberate<\/p>\n
His hair cut, washed and combed<\/p>\n
In his Sunday best<\/p>\n
He always left a tip<\/p>\n
A big smile, a friendly personality<\/p>\n
He was the luckiest man alive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He disappeared for a while.<\/p>\n
He returned without a car<\/p>\n
Without a hair cut<\/p>\n
His clothes more tattered<\/p>\n
Pushing a walker laden with his life<\/p>\n
His body more frail, his smile more crooked<\/p>\n
Still he would tell you whether you asked or not<\/p>\n
He was the luckiest man alive<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He told me his story one day<\/p>\n
Parts at least<\/p>\n
He had been hit by a drunk driver<\/p>\n
He had been in a coma<\/p>\n
Woke up, unable to walk<\/p>\n
His wife deserted him<\/p>\n
His new life was hard work<\/p>\n
But he was alive<\/p>\n
he learned to walk again.<\/p>\n
The Jehovah’s Witnesses had been there<\/p>\n
And every Sunday he tries to make church<\/p>\n
Whenever he possibly can<\/p>\n
God has blessed him<\/p>\n
He is the luckiest man alive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He pushes his walker, sometimes attempting to run<\/p>\n
Across a street or along the highway<\/p>\n
His legs barely working<\/p>\n
He has almost gotten hit<\/p>\n
Too many times to mention.<\/p>\n
He told me the worst part<\/p>\n
Was never feeling clean.<\/p>\n
I saw him pee by the side of the road once<\/p>\n
The bathroom too far to go.<\/p>\n
He always tells me, he tells us all<\/p>\n
He is the luckiest man alive<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Once I found him asleep on the sidewalk<\/p>\n
He looked dead<\/p>\n
The police came, they knew him well<\/p>\n
He had walked too far and just couldn’t go on<\/p>\n
They shewed him away<\/p>\n
Sent him down the highway<\/p>\n
He struggled to stand<\/p>\n
But he made it a ways<\/p>\n
Bob never gives up<\/p>\n
Never gets upset<\/p>\n
He is the luckiest man alive<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He lives in whatever parking lot he can<\/p>\n
Tries to be a good citizen<\/p>\n
Cockroaches fall from his bags<\/p>\n
He has a tarp for when it rains<\/p>\n
People buy him food sometimes<\/p>\n
He smiles and chats<\/p>\n
His hair long and tangled<\/p>\n
No one really cares, no one really helps<\/p>\n
But Bob will tell you<\/p>\n
He will always tell you<\/p>\n
He is the luckiest man alive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I wish I could help him, take him in<\/p>\n
Help him find warmth and love and safety<\/p>\n
But each day, he struggles along<\/p>\n
Alone<\/p>\n
Step by careful step<\/p>\n
One long day into the next<\/p>\n
He is a good man, a kind man,<\/p>\n
He tells us all<\/p>\n
Anyone that will listen<\/p>\n
He is the luckiest man alive<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I believe he means it too.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I met Bob for the first time Four long years ago He had a car then He walked slow but deliberate His hair cut, washed and combed In his Sunday best He always left a tip A big smile, a friendly personality He was the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23939"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30035,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23939\/revisions\/30035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}