The Fiddler Poem by L MILTON HANKINS

A young man came from Sandy Hook
To play his fiddle for our sheer pleasure
Scottish reels and an occasional Irish folk song
From memory, for little he gladly entertained
Though enormously talented, he suffered
From a debilitating disease of mind long
Unconsidered by family, friends, teachers, all
Despite his blighted social skills and
Sometimes strange and inexplicable behavior
We did not comprehend his innermost needs
No one became acquainted with his inner child
No one reached inside his mind defiled.

We learned he discovered the Internet
Which, in time, would be his undoing.
As the story read, he was communicating
Suggestively with someone unknowingly
So, the law came and carried him off to jail
No one seemed the wiser for his immaturity.

I went to see what I could do to help
But I was much much too late to intervene
In the middle of the night he had played
A few Scottish reels and an Irish folk song
Entertained the block of the incarcerated
And in the darkness took his own life.