And the Walls Came Down

Old man Millsap was a sadlittle creature.

He lived down the road withhis wife and daughters

Who, sad to the world, hadtheir father's features

And grew to be spinsters withno social graces.

 

A quiet sort, old Millsap,the handyman;

Skilled with a hammer and sawor a wrench.

He could build a shed in thespit of a minute,

Clean up and be gone withoutleaving a trace.

 

Everyone thought him an oddlittle man;

Someone to pity, perhaps evenfear.

Though his heart was awashwith the kindness of ages,

His stoic demeanor wasmisunderstood.

 

And the tattered attire andramshackled pickup

He drove didn't help hispersona at all.

People had such a hard timeseeing past the surface

To find that part that wasgood.

 

Old Millsap took masses ofteasing and taunting

From self-righteoushypocrites lost in themselves;

People who joy at the expenseof others,

Who laugh and cajole as theypull on the reins.

 

Little wonder they could notimagine

What must have possessed himthat fateful evening

When all the walls cametumbling down.

Old Millsap went home andblew out his brains.