"Forgottens"

Forgotten ones
If lines and wrinkles could tell stories, his face would be a dozen old novels
Left on shelves unopened and dusty
Untouched and without love, but waiting patiently to captivate an audience of one
Spit falls from his mouth like a slow motion defeat
Making a messy bed on his chin
He lifts up dried hard hands thick like cow hide
As if I could save him

I have never felt that helpless
Never looked so out of place
Never wanted to be blind so bad. . .
But. . . I have eyes. . . They are green, and they work just fine

Against my better judgment, I look around like a perfect tourist
Mental pictures being taking without my permission choking down the horrific scenes
I know I will remember for a lifetime. . .

She dances towards me. . . The little girl without shoes
Head to toe covered in an ugly mess of trash and dirt
She dances in a long skirt amongst the ugly of her backyard as if she’s to  blind to see her life is lived between bags of trash and back broken dreams
She asks me . . . “will you dance with me”
We move like eagles, something brave and beautiful
Even with broken wings she soars proudly

Around my feet are all the tears I’ve cried mixed with all the hope I’ve lost
As if when mixed together they became specks of gold, she picks them up and tries to wash the dirt from her hair
She thinks she’s a princess. . .
I think she’s a barefooted scarred angel
Sent to remind me it’s okay to smile
So don’t tell me there is no God cause
I heard him in her laugh,
Don’t tell me he doesn’t love us
Cause I felt it in her embrace
I saw him in her smile. . .
I saw him. . . It looked like home

She takes my hand brown on brown skin. . . A beautiful broken masterpiece
She wants to show me her world. . . In doing so she’ll forever change mine
I nearly falter under the weight of the smell
Piles of shit and wasted food share the same space as her bed
She looks at me. . . With eyes like a love poem
Pleading with my human parts. . .they beg like a street corner
Broken and forgotten like the old man with the face that told stories
Don’t forget me
Sounded like a broken vow piecing itself back together.

I can never be the same.
She left me so full of joy
She made rain clouds break into smiles we call sunshine
She tickled the universe with her hope making it laugh faithfully
I felt like my grandmother was alive to hug and dance and laugh with me
Like a childhood secret
My own little barefooted dirty angel
Reminded me were my hope could be found and that my joy was still unbroken

She left me, like a prayer. . . hopeful