Questions of a Dying Old Man

His net was dry and become brittle Anyone could see it hadn’t been cast In many months The foaming sea roiled on the breaking waves Outside his hut, the baking sun burned the pebbles on the beach The old man lay in his bed covered in sweat A memory stash of years had passed Since he felt well enough to cast a net But a man must eat He had made one last effort to get up To go outside, pickup the net, put it on the boat And cast off His heart was willing, But his body weakened with exhaustion Deterred him from even trying He fell back in bed Such was the end of an old man Who fished to put food on the table, But now in his time of need His government turned its back on him Where was his social security His pension, his medical aid? He lay awake in pain Sobbing Some would say he hadn’t worked long enough To earn help from the government, But he had worked all his life Doesn’t that count for something? Others would say he hadn’t done anything for his fellowman, But did they not remember that one winter, when he had fed the whole village Singlehandedly, had they forgotten that? Or the time he took severely ill children across the bay to see the doctor And the children survived, But this time, no help came to the old man on this sweltering hot day, He lay in his bed of snarled sheets sopping with sweat This is how my life ends, he sobbed, Nobody to care if I die or help from nobody What’s a life for, if not to help care for his fellowman Simply a little sympathy, compassion, or love Is that too much to ask? I am a man! Am I a human being? Don’t I deserve some concern? Lord, don’t desert me now! I stand alone as the day I was born sans mother But then, maybe that’s why people need each other Alone, no person stands everyone needs some one there at the inevitable end to feel their hand and sense the final warmth to say the last goodbye as your soul departs.