Oh, I Wish I Was

No Matter Where Its Seed Fell, It Made A Tree Which Struggled To Reach The Sky. It Grew In Boarded-up Lots And Out Of Neglected Rubbish Heaps, And It Was The Only Tree That Grew Out Of Cement. It Grew Lushly, But Only In The Tenements Districts.... That Was The Kind Of Tree It Was. It Liked Poor People.

If There Was Only One Tree Like That In The World, You Would Think It Was Beautiful. But Because There Are So Many, You Just Can't See How Beautiful It Really Is.

Forgiveness Is A Gift Of High Value. Yet Its Cost Is Nothing.

Katie Had A Fierce Desire For Survival Which Made Her A Fighter. Johnny Had A Hankering After Immortality Which Made Him A Useless Dreamer. And That Was The Great Difference Between These Two Who Loved Each Other So Well.

She Was Made Up Of More, Too. She Was The Books She Read In The Library. She Was The Flower In The Brown Bowl. Part Of Her Life Was Made From The Tree Growing Rankly In The Yard. She Was The Bitter Quarrels She Had With Her Brother Whom She Loved Dearly. She Was Katie's Secret, Despairing Weeping. She Was The Shame Of Her Father Stumbling Home Drunk. She Was All Of These Things And Of Something More...it Was What God Or Whatever Is His Equivalent Puts Into Each Soul That Is Given Life - The One Different Thing Such As That Which Makes No Two Fingerprints On The Face Of The Earth Alike.