A hand reached out from heaven,
It strove to touch my head;
Then I was just eleven
And I ducked and turned and fled.

When I grew up to seventeen
I lost the light of day,
The sky of blue, the earth of green,
And strayed into the gray.

The gray was pleasing for a while;
The pleasures of twilight
Were serpents coiled with a smile
To flash a lethal bite.

I groped to escape from the fang,
I stumbled through the gloom,
Clutched at the celestial hand
And saved me from my doom.

Tan Pratonix

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-hand-reached-out-from-heaven/