Just Yesterday I Was Wealthy But Now I Am Poor Poem by Gert Strydom

Just yesterday I was wealthy,
but now I am indigent.
I was rich in my youth,
rich in my dreams and hopes,
rich in a selfless kind of love
and rich in the women who did love me.

I was rich in my trust and faith
in my omnipotent loving God,
rich in His miracles
from my childhood days,
I was wealthy in an education
and a career that comes with it.

I have lost more than one family,
have lost children that I had raised as my own,
have lost grown-up children
whom I did love
but they were never really mine.

I was rich in my spirit
but now I am getting old,
have lost my best friends
by the wiles and whims
of the women that once did love me,
by the gossip, slander and backbiting
of employees of a worldwide religious domination
by the stench of unemployment
and the poverty that it does bring.

I was wealthy in possessions,
in the cars and things that I did own
but I was robbed in a fortnight
from a job,
from two cars and one was parked at a church
while my wife did drive her own,
from a wife,
from a family and the children that goes with it

and I was robbed from again getting a new job
by maybe some own mistakes
which I do not really know about
but mostly by the lies of one of me my references,
the lies that a religious employer gave
about me being unfit to be employed,
about me being a utter womaniser
who did even whore around,
that I could not keep my hands off the women,
about me not being able to work under authority
which in reality means that I had been rebellious
which I had been not
or which means that I did not complete or do
the orders that were given to me,
which I did do to my utmost best ability
or did my job in such a backhanded way
that my work went to ruin

but for eleven years while I did work
as a senior-accountant for that church
the auditors could not find any mistake
and did constantly give
an honest reliable good report.

Now I am poor in the trust that I do have
in the religious leaders of almost every church
as chaplains from other denominations
during my time in the military
tried to walk right over me,
in the religious leaders of that church,
in bad experiences that do range
from the very top level of it
down to the local congregation

but yet I still believe in the supreme power of God,
in His selfless love and His care,
do believe in the power of love,
that somewhere I will find someone
who really do believe in me,
who will love me for the person that I am,
who will be my trusting partner,
my girlfriend, my companion
maybe later my wife
and that somewhere such a beautiful angel does exist.

© Gert Strydom