SamadhiMuse

                           Gerda’s Knife
      I watched ‘Winds of War’ on TV and then turned out the light
         And, on the stairs, in the dark, ascending
            I saw your father’s knife as it hung in your bedroom.
      Its white metal patient these many years
         since another sun shown on it
            in the days of the German Reich.
      I could hear flags whipping, red and black,
         against the green of trees
            and the gray of building stones
      and, for a moment, felt the eyes of countless men
         as their hands caressed its handle’s symbol
            and reveled in the power and purpose of a God given cause
      and then, these many years later, through chances too rare to say,
         I came and found it there in your room
            waiting patiently through all my childhood and travels
      A time machine from another land
         another time
            that almost changed my world
      I look at old photos, black and white,
         and so much time seems too stand between me and those images
            but with your father’s knife
      I could hear the flags whispering
         in the crisp air of that unique time
            and feel their dreams across the years
                                    GALLAGHER
                                    7 Feb 83
                                    San Juan Capistrano

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —