An Angel, Unknown

Poet's Notes

(Show)

Become a Premium Member and post notes and photos about your poem like Gregory Richard Barden.

Related image

* I can verify this is true, as I still have the ad and article from the American Journal. *

Oh, yes, angels are real ... Late fall of 1974, just after Halloween - I was driving home from prep school one Friday afternoon, After a long week of intense studies and soccer ... On Interstate 295 between Yarmouth and Falmouth. I had just pulled into the left lane to pass a tractor-trailer truck, And ... BAM!! A loud bang like a shot gun! The car was immediately uncontrollable, So I knew at once I'd blown the left front tire ... I slammed on the brakes and pulled into the median strip, Far enough so it wouldn't bother traffic, But with enough shoulder that I could still change the tire, (Which I had done more than once before). Only as soon as I opened the trunk and checked, I discovered, to my chagrin, that the "spare" tire was flat also! I knew then I was in for a long, tiring afternoon, So I put out two markers, left the trunk open so folks would know, Turned on the emergency flashers, locked it up, And started my long walk back to town, (about three miles). Oh, people still hitch-hiked a lot in those days, But I'd been raised to believe it was dangerous, So I kept my thumbs tucked into my straight-leg corduroys. All-in-all it took almost three hours to walk back, Call home for a ride, wait for my mom to come after me, And get back to where the car was on the highway ... But when we finally DID get to the car, there was a surprise ... Waiting to greet me was a brand new tire, already installed on the car, Another new tire in the trunk where the spare had been, And when I went to get into the car and head home, A fifty-dollar-bill had been stuffed up into the door handle!! With only a Christian fish symbol written on it! I ran an ad in the local paper the following week, Then they did a small story on it, But I NEVER found out who had blessed me that day. Yet, I never forgot it, either, and to this day ... I always pay for the two-or-three cars behind me, Whenever I go through the toll booth on the highway ... And when I DO, I think of that angel ... And I say a prayer for them ... For I know they got as much of a blessing from it as I did ... Well ... maybe not QUITE as much! ;-)