While rushing down a crowded, busy, lonesome city sidewalk,
I had no time for chit or chat, no time for boring small talk.
A crippled beggar, called out to me, “Have you some bread to spare?”
An open hand I’ve always had, but I had no time to share.
Just when I tried to find an excuse that simply would not come,
A dapper chap all dressed so fine, replied unto this bum,
“We’d love to help you if we could,
Our hearts do sorrow they are not wood,
We wish you well, we surely do,
And I’m sure someone will soon help you.”
An apt rely and spoken well,
This guy had class, I could tell.
Now later on when I came home, I grabbed my daily mail,
And I received a letter from a friend of mine in jail:
“Could you please pay me a visit, I’m lonesome as can be,
I’d come and visit you if only I were free.”
Well I’d loved him like a brother, if only I’d the time,
So I wrote to him these words of wit and even made them rhyme:
“I’d love to help you if I could,
My heart it bleeds, it is not wood.
I wish you well, I surely do,
And someone soon will visit you.”
Just when I sat to eat my meal, a knock came on the door,
And as I viewed the peephole, I saw a stranger who looked poor.
I opened it and told him I was getting ready to go,
But I think he smelled my steak a-cooking, I think that he did know.
He said, “I have no need for money, but I’m hungry as a horse.”
I told him that if I wasn’t leaving, I’d feed him why, of course.
“I’d love to feed you if I could,
My hearts is touched, it is not wood.
I wish you well, I surely do,
And someone soon will feed poor you.”
Now late that night I had a dream, a nightmare I should say,
I found myself in a place of fire, where sinners all do pay.
Who should I see, but that handsome gent, the one with silver tongue,
The one who spoke those special words on which my memory hung.
“Hey buddy, can you help me out and show me to the door,”
He laughed and said, “Hey bro you’re dead, your soul is mine for sure.
I’d love to help you if I could,
But my heart is evil and beyond wood.
I wish you hell, I surely do,
For I am Satan and who are you?”
Tertius
Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me,
you who are cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat,
I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,
I was a stranger and you did not invite me in,
I needed clothes and you did not clothe me,
I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”
Matthew 25:41-43
A note about “My Brother’s Keeper”: The devil is more than happy for us to extend sympathy to someone in need as long as we don’t actually do anything. Sort of like watching football on TV, you “feel” like you’re involved, but you’re really not.