If Someone Is Going To Save Me Poem by r james sterzinger

if someone is going to save me
it won't be the street preacher
at the Farmer's Market
giving his take on Christ
between the rutabagas
and the tomatoes

if someone is going to save me
it won't be the televangelist
on the television, on Sunday
hawking his latest book
on the apocalypse
that isn't coming by Tuesday, anyhow.

if someone is going to save me
it won't be the shrink I had with
the pills they gave me
or the week that they tried
to pull me back
from the knothole I really
never resurrected from

if someone is going to pull me back
it will start
with the smile I get
from Viv
who is eighty and then some
who is always happy to see me
and always sees me
when many of the others don't

she always smiles
always looks to see
if I am under the corner of
the choir loft...
as I am

when we walk through the church
on Sunday morning to say hello to the priest
she tells me she feels a little shaky
and I always tell her 'I'll catch you.'
and I will, if need be

and we talk about her grand-kids
and great-grand kids
the dog she misses
and the husband she misses as well

then I think to myself
she is as close to the love of God
I may ever see
I also think
that her long gone husband
must have been the luckiest guy
on earth
and I envy him
even though he is dead...

when the week has played out
and it wasn't anything I had hoped for
I go to church
and when I see her
I feel someone
just might save me
in spite of it all