Gratitude of the Soul-broken During the Nine Days

The most grateful participants
In our congregation's services,
I shamefully admit, are often the
Guys with whom I am most
Hesitant to speak with.

The guy with a sometimes
Wild cast to his eye, who’d admit
To some self-inflicted catastrophe in 
Life — easy to imagine.   Or the
Man preoccupied with his own 

Ill-health. Or the one full of regrets, 
The marriage ill- or un-made, no
Legacy and a creeping close
Demise.  Yet their gratitude shakes
Our walls, wistful joy that they

Are actually in a place that counts 
Them in, offers a cup of coffee, and 
Where they rub shoulders with some 
Who drive off in late model cars.
But status, at the moment,

Doesn't matter. Everyone in the
Congregation has their own sorrows, 
Some obvious, others not so. 
The overtly broken pray well
For and with their soul-broken
Brethren. I’m thankful for their
Gratitude: they pray it better
Than me.