A Repost,

Inspired by My Brother,

Georg Mateos,

And His Latest Poem,

Another Kind of Christmas

And By Karen Lynn’s Short Story,

Jingle Bells, The Christmas Cat

Very Sadly in This Vast Nation,

The Only Friend A Homeless Veteran,

Or a Disadvantaged Sick Child Has,

Is Often Their Extremely Loyal Cat or Dog

The death of a homeless man

Never makes the national news

But Louie was one I’ll remember

He lived mostly with the Blues

I first met Ragman Louie

Many many years ago

His story is mostly tragic

As are all of earth’s lost souls

He eagerly enlisted in the Army

To gallantly serve in Vietnam

He left his high school sweetheart

Barely a year after their senior prom

He wrote to his Sally everyday

Of her he was so very fond

But she was young and fickle

And soon sent him a ‘Dear John’

Shortly after Louie’s heart was broken

He severely injured both a leg and an arm

It was in a jungle half way around the world

That a terrible explosion had done him harm

They soon sent Louie home

Where for years he didn’t work

He was quickly branded as a bum

And as a worthless demented jerk

No one knew his last name

Louie had no living family

His beard was long and scraggly

And his pain was obvious to see

He often showed up at my office

Just to rest and to shoot the breeze

I’d always give him a cup of coffee

He always said ‘Thanks’ and ‘Please’

Louie would never take a handout

He had still retained some pride

But in the callous Concrete Jungle

There was nowhere he could hide

Louie lived on the city streets

And he had no real friends

Only an old junkyard dog

Who was loyal to the end

They found old Ragman Lou

Lying face down on the tracks

He had passed out down there

After swilling too much Black

They said that his mangy old mutt Rags

Had tried to pull Lou from harm’s way

But the old freight train got them both

One dark and bitterly cold winter’s day

Ragman Lou like most of his kind

Was laid to rest in a pauper’s grave

And it should pain all of our hearts

Since he was one of America’s Brave

There are thousands of lost veterans

Scattered all across this vast nation

And their abandonment and neglect

Should bring none of us any elation

In This Season of Giving,

Please Remember & Give,

To Our Homeless Veterans,

To Our Sick and Needy Children,

And To Their Homeless Furry Friends

©2007, Mr. Ed