A King’s Ransom

What is the gift in your life Is it your husband or wife Is it your children, your lover, your pet The notion of someone you haven’t met yet Is it the door that you shut on the havoc The sanctity of your four walls Relaxing with something with lemon and ice The chatter when family calls What is the essence of life Is it the joy or the strife Is it the gift of another new day Is it the moonlight that wipes it away Is it the senses that most take for granted Til veils are pulled over your eyes The joy of the breath that means you escaped death And you realise your life is a prize What is the price of a life When it dwells on the edge of a knife Is it dollars or cents as it sits on the fence Before it stands firm or repents Is it a penny ignored by the many A glint to the partially blind When shots overhead leave passers-by dead As I kneel to see what I may find So what is the value of life When gangland reprisals are rife And witnesses number not many But my life was saved by a penny So is this the value of life Not a bargain store bear nor a Steiff A penny: A low value find But a glint to the partially blind