Teaching at the crossroads

I was standing at the crossroads when I heard a familiar sound.
The drumming of a heart beat, the chanting of a crowd.
Enter in and be amazed or stand back and drift away.
Find your passion- is it real?
Test your strength; is it something you can feel?
Say words that make little sense, cry for thoughts that are nonsense.
Love someone who has not been taught how to love back.
Only to learn his love is the best you have ever known.
Pure and easy it flows from within- it matches the love you have inside.
Sit and wonder what makes you try so hard.
Never give up, don't give in- over and over love that child again.
Everyday the sun comes up and shines on that crossroads in my mind.
I choose to enter and silence the crowd.
He drowns out the shouts with every hug he gives; he beats the drum louder with every success he finds.
When the sun goes back down and its dark in my soul, I think of the one left at the crossroads.
Will there be another to take my place?
To enter into such a strange place.
Where love is tested, trust is denied?
A little boy who can convince himself with one simple lie.
Who will stand at the crossroads when I am gone.
Who will teach him that he is that strong?
Who will ignore the chants of the crowd, chanting he can't, he will fail.
Who will listen closely as he calls?
Who will protect this poor boy from his falls?
Soon my turn to be there will be over.
Maybe I did enough in the time I had, to protect him from a future that could be bad.
I will hear in every child's sigh- his lonesome and desperate cry.
Will he hear me in his teacher's sigh- chanting above the crowd "you can do it, if you only try."
Anonymous