THE BLIND MAN AND THE TREE

While traveling through the countryside,
fancy what I should see,
but a blind man begging miserably
for money from a tree.

I asked him why he stood there
with no one else around.
Said he, “He’s standing right there,
his feet rooted to the ground!”

“Said he, “He ever taunts me,
provoking my handicap.
And when begging him for money,
I get nothing more than sap.”

“He simply remains jocular,
mocking and making fun.
Yet I know he has not gone away,
for his silhouette’s against the sun.”

“My friend,” I kept from laughing,
”I’m afraid you cannot see
and you are therefore quite mistaken,
for your man is just a tree.”

“Fool!” the blind man cried.
”This man is not a tree!
For I hear his six arms rattling
as he’s ever taunting me!”

And so as I went on my way,
I chuckled inwardly
and left the two of them standing there,
just the blind man and the tree.