[LVT25]

I got this e-mail this morning and it reminded me of you all, so I thought I'd share.

When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in North Platte , Nebraska , it was believed that he had nothing left of any value

Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, They found this poem . Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital

One nurse took her copy to Missouri . The old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the St . Louis Association for Mental Health . A slide presentation h as also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.
And this little old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this " anonymous" poem winging across the Internet.
Crabby Old Man

What do you see nurse?. . . . What do you see?
What are you thinking . . . . . when you're looking at me?
A crabby old man,. . . . . not very wise,
Uncertain of habit . . . . . . with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food . . . . . .. . and makes no reply .
When you say in loud voice . . . . . "I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice . . . the things that you do
And forever is losing ... . . . . . . A sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not . . . . . . lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding. . . . The long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking?. . . . Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse . . . . you're not looking at me .

See who I am . . . . . . As I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding. . . . . . as I eat at your will .
I'm a small child of Ten . . . . . with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters . . . . . . who love one another

A young boy of Sixteen . . . . with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now . . . . . . a lover he'll meet ..
A groom soon at Twenty. . . . . my heart gives a leap
Remembering vows . . . . . . that I promised to keep