a poem by Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor

Street scene in Iran

They stood along the road—
A motley workman crew
With picks and shovels in their hands—
Illiterate and underpaid.

Across the road, a young, attractive peasant woman
Edged her way
Beside the open sewer to
Join the older women with the weathered hands.

Among that workman crew
Stood one I did not know.
He had a brain like mine,
And great ability—
Enough to be an emperor
Or keen-edged businessman,
A doctor, lawyer, or to work for IBM.

But such was not his lot.
His father’s home was poor,
And he was not the one (as here and there one does)
To force his way
Against the odds
Of fate.

And so the youthful dreams
And fires
Burned out.
And he was left, a brawny carcass
Of a former man,
With pick and shovel in his hand
To beat against the brainless clods.

And she across the road,
Who could have graced the finest table in the land,
Moved on beside the gutter—
In passing phase
Between her childhood peace
And anguish of the coming days
Of drudgery to man and beast alike.

K.N.T. Teheran, February 15, 1976

Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor who was born May 8th, 1917, in Portland, Oregon and went to be with the Lord at the age of 88 on June 10, 2005. Taylor reflected: "I learned that prayer brings power, but character grows through reading and obeying the Word of God—the Scriptures." Thank you Lord for men like this……..