I JUDGED A MAN 

Writer Johnny Mullins



Today I saw some ragged clothes and I judged the frame on which they hung

There goes a wasted life says I I'll not waste mine for I'm young

I know his kind they're all alike he's from the Skid Row part of town

He'll beg a dime here and a quarter there

And be in the gutter before the sun goes down

Then I turned and walked into a store to buy a book of poems to read

Oh the best of literature says I is for the man of higher bread

Then I saw these words aimed right at me and it made me sorta hang my head

For I'd turned that random to a page and halfway down this poem I read

He sold a row of violets along a barren path he trod

That every future passes by might view the handy work of God

He carved a map upon a stone placed it on a dessert floor

To show tomorrows dying soul where cool clear water lay in store

And to write here all the many things he did to help his fellow man

Why it would make a book too long to read and wear away the poet's pen

Then I left the store to find that man just walk up to him rags and all

And shake his hand and chat awhile and then I heard an ambulance call

What happened here I asked someone why all the crowd that's gathered round

They said just some old ragged man from the Skid Row part of town

I bowed my head in silent prayer forgive me Lord for my idle tongue

Today I saw some ragged clothes and I judged the frame on which they hung