An Occasional Chance Encounter

An occasional chance encounter With a stranger on the street Can change life like a tidal wave And lift us off our feet. The mystery of wakefulness Like the dance of rolling dice, Is filled with rhythm, love and hate Virtue, darkness, light. Bending ‘round from sky to ground, Heaven, hell and in between; An occasional chance encounter Can turn a whore into a queen. Who may have been lost in paradise, Trampled, beaten, bruised; The **** you spit on yesterday Might well have been just you. Or the skid-row drunk whose soul has sunk So low you can’t relate, To the pain he knows each time it snows And the cold winds won’t abate. Unless, until somebody fills His heart with dreams again; An occasional chance encounter Might mean the world to him. A word or two of hopefulness, From nightmares all day long; A helping hand, one measured stand Turns sorrow into song. And now and then when nothing’s wrong And everything feels fine; No dark cloud storms or feeling worn Cast clouds upon the mind. When all feels well and quite routine And there’s nothing much to say, An occasional chance encounter Can change us all in many ways. A look in the eye and words that fly Out of one’s tongue and mouth; Before we know it love starts to show it And the heart starts heading down south. Running away like a child at play As if never before set free; Wild in the wind as one begins To open up eyes and see. That blindness isn’t limited To those that have no sight But affects us all the weak and small Every day and every night. As now and then like a Zephyr wind A stranger comes a’ calling; Before we know we’re all a glow In love and freely falling. Like a coin toss out of nowhere, Probabilities, unimaginable; An occasional chance encounter May render life numinous, unfathomable. Trust me when I tell you that There are riches deep inside; Every soul that ever lived, Struggled, loved and died. As it is written in the book of life And inscribed inside our heads; An occasional chance encounter Can find beauty in the beast within And love where hatred led.