The Skates Poem by JAMES T. ADAIR

This winter day
far away
Children play
Skating on a frozen lake
laughing and spinning and chasing
but one stands alone
and shys away

A tear can be seen in her eye
frozen there by the Winter sky
and somewhere her father does cry
She feels something is wrong with her
that she feels so alone
nobody notices her
amidst the drone
of laughing and shouting

She has no skates
and she feels in a shell
nobody notice when she slipped and fell
and inside her little heart broke
from the yelling and screamging at home
and the angry words someone spoke
and she laid there in pain
not from the bump on her knee
but from the pain others don't see

And then a boy
different from the others
tapped her gently on the shoulder
he was a little stronger and a little older
but he had a tear in his eye
because he saw
and he helped her to her feet
and he looked at her sad face
and he tried with a smile to replace

He said they might be a little big
but you can use my skates

© James T. Adair