Love Sleeps, Never Dies

An old man A Grumpy bitter old man Bitter face Red nose Wrinkled beady eyes Scruffy clothes his best attire Life has not been kind So his bitter words bite those around He lived alone, inside his madness Leave me be and go to hell His favorite expressions The phone rang one night late This is the Court sir, your brother’s son and family Have been in a terrible accident Only your niece of four survived When can you pick her up? The old man was in a daze What the hell was he being punished for now Keeping care of a dam kid What the bloody hell did he know about that? "Well sir, we will be expecting you tomorrow, 9am prompt please" Walking back to his flat, with a 4 year old girl in tow Well the neighbors gawked to say the least The poor little girl, tears and teddy, trying to keep up with grumpy Once inside his flat, he looked at her with disdain Said "Guess you be expecting some food or some such" She nodded, as sad as she was, she was indeed hungry He showed her the cupboard and fridge, milk and cereal in there Help yourself, and wash the dam dishes afterwards Don’t got no extra bed, so you sleep here on the couch She nodded silently, thinking the world truly must have ended Days, turned into weeks, turned into months This little girl complained not once All she could think of was her pain Mummy and daddy were in heaven where ever that was Why they left her was truly confusing Friday was her birthday She was sad and missing her family Getting ready, she went to the cupboard for dinner The old man said what the hell you doing that for? She shivered in fear, he was always so so so mad She apologies, sorry uncle Pete He replied you sit your self down right there And you be quiet you here? Then the lights all of sudden went out Bright tiny candles burned in the night The old man, said, is your birthday after all Hope you don’t mind these little cupcakes I got us here She looked at him with new eyes He turned, not quite smiling, no miracles just yet They ate in silence after which, he said good night and happy birthday The next morning even they really never talked Other than who does what chores Or how expensive she was to care for She asked out of the blue "Uncle, why do angels have wings?" In his usual grumpy way, he replied "So they get the hell away from us as fast as they can is why This world is no place for happiness or angels get used to that" She was taken back by his bitterness, still……… She replied, “but I dream on them looking over me uncle" Well he looked at her, and somewhat softly and with unusual kindness He answered her "that’s because you are one of them, a sweet little angel" She ran into his arms and gave him a big hug This was a very good thing. For then she could not see the single tear the dropped to the floor He actually hugged her back and with all of his heart That day, a day for most people that was a normal day Was for him and his little charge, a miracle A small loving child, held that secret key To opening an old mans heart