Don Pearson: A Scientist and Priest's Reflection

He sat beside me <br />drawn into futility: <br />conversation, <br />gestures, <br />thought. <br /> <br />I knew who he was, <br />well-known, a scientist, <br />iconoclast, <br />catholic, <br />priest. <br /> <br />He cried beside me, <br />shown to have frailty, <br />human weakness, <br />denounced, <br />old. <br /> <br />A man of sorrows, <br />despised by the world, <br />wrongly condemned, <br />finished, <br />free. <br /> <br />He looked toward me, <br />willed me his compassion, <br />smiled a broad smile, <br />stood up, <br />fell. <br /> <br />May 2001<br /><br />Don Pearson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/man2/