Jack’s bed was by the window
The whole time that they’d been there.
It really hadn’t mattered;
Neither took the time to care.

Both of them were paralyzed
From the time they’d been in Nam.
They both had learned the hard way,
Of the deadly pop-up bomb.

Jack didn’t like the TV
And visitors there were few,
So they lay and talked a lot,
There was nothing else to do.

Of the things they talked about,
One subject that was taboo;
Talk about their injuries
And the things they couldn’t do.

Bill asked about the window
And the things that Jack could see.
Jack, quiet for a minute,
It might have been two or three.

Then Jack began to describe
All the things he saw outside,
The park, the pond and the ducks,
And the Shetland pony ride.

Their days became full again
With the wonders, Jack would tell.
Bill could almost taste the things
That the vendors came to sell.

He shared the love of couples,
Who were strolling through the park,
Holding hands beside the pond
Until daylight turned to dark.

Bill’s dull life now full of sights
Seen vividly through Jack’s eyes;
Children playing after school,
He could hear their joyful cries.

But he began to envy
All the sights that Jack could see.
Just to see them for himself,
How much better it would be.

Then it happened late one night,
Jack had a bad choking spell.
Bill could tell that Jack would die
If he didn’t ring the bell.

He thought about the window
And how much he envied Jack.
A too late call, nurses came
But they couldn’t bring Jack back.

Anticipation stole his sleep,
And a bit of conscience too,
He asked Nurse to move his bed
So that he could see the view.

A puzzled look crossed her face
But then quickly she complied.
At last the window was his
And he turned to look outside.

A brick wall was all he saw
And his heart began to race.
“Where is the park that Jack saw?”
He yelled in the nurse’s face.

The nurse, startled by his tone,
Said with words a bit unkind,
“You lived with Jack all these months
And didn’t know Jack was blind?”

One of my uncles, Tom Spurway, first told me this story many years ago. I brought it up to date a little by jumping ahead a couple of wars. I’m sure that it isn’t true but it could be. There is certainly a good moral lesson in the poem. If you want something so badly that you will hurt others to get it, you may find out that what you get is much less than you expected and you just might ruin what you already have.