I saw Christ today

At a street corner stand,

In the rags of a beggar he stood

He held ballads in his hand.

He was crying out: "Two for a penny

Will anyone buy

The finest ballads ever made

From the stuff of Joy"?

But the blind and deaf went past

Knowing only there

An uncouth ballad seller

With tail-matted hair

And I whom men call fool

His ballads bought

Found Him whom the pieties

Have vainly sought.

…PATRICK KAVANAGH…