They Touched My Shoulder Poem by Buxton Shippy

He touched my shoulder gently
Before he left for work
To me it means he cares.
All through the day,
While I tend to the children,
The effects of the touch lingered.

The next day, at the park,
As I fed the ducks
With bread crumbs,
A stranger touched my shoulder;
It felt as if
A thousand volts of electricity
Violently passed through my body.
I turned to see an elderly man
With a welcoming smile;
He asked for direction to a local store.
He walked away gingerly
After I instructed him.

Then I pondered
How what seem to be
The same touch
Could affected me so differently;
After all, it was apparently,
The same touch,
On the same body-part;
Yet it felt so radically different.