This Little Motel

There's this little Motel on the highway I know
That's sat with its lights out for years in the snow.
I saw its potential told you what it was
And saw in those words life that flickered because –

You too like potential untapped and unseen:
The rock written off when no use has been seen;
And the lowly; downtrodden; on margins of life;
Who've drawn a bad hand, played their cards far from right –

Okay, maybe not way down – lowest of low –
But where there's potential which few others know.
That day, as your back healed, I wondered myself
If you'd get your life back, or wane on the shelf.

I don't rescue people, help their lives move on,
The lowest of low, lifting them with a song;
The ones I feel closest to, stuck in the ditch –
Like tow truck, I come up and offer a hitch.

Of course, I have soft spot for those really stuck,
And that comes quite often from those born in muck;
But little I care how a person gets there,
More interest for me is their view of despair –

For some, they want out, just a nudge needed most;
Some others are ready to give up the ghost;
The candle for some burns quite low in the wind;
For others, despair, as the greatly have sinned.

Just like that Motel with some life left to give,
Such folks have a purpose from God yet to live;
I like helping folks move along on their way,
An invite to life is what I then convey.

When I spoke potential of that rundown place
I saw lights then flicker – that hope in your face.
'Twas then that I knew that to life you'd return,
And that's what, from my heart, I'm mostly had yearned.

But sadly, that Motel has seen better days
All fenced in I saw it, ‘Keep Out’ the sign says;
‘Asbestos within must be all taken out’
Not much can be saved, is what I think about.

But maybe the gift which it gave me that day
Is part of its value – told me in a way,
‘This man will emerge from disaster for him
And once more respond to potential, with grin’.

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