Bring me the wobbly, the scabby, the beaten,
the oldies, the lost, the could-have-been-eaten,
the wayward,, the strays, the nightmares to tame,
the cringers, the timid, the ones with no name,
the mangy, the lousy, the missing-one-leg,
the dirty, the stinky, the too-tired-to-beg,
the crooked, the toothless, the eartorn, the humped,
the knobby, the limping, the recently-dumped,
the feral, the fearful, the head- and hand-shy,
the last gasp no-hopers, the ones who might die,
the three-homes-already, the stubborn returners,
the deafened, the sightless, the never-will-learners,
the tucked-in-the-corner, the sodden in pee,
bring me all these ones - please bring them to me.
"Rehomer's prayer" by Di Slaney from Reward for Winter
I have a friend who is a deeply compassionate man and it seems like this poem by written just for him. It's from the new collection of poetry by Di Slaney and I heard about it from Dovegreyreader here.