SamadhiMuse

                        On Sophie’s choice
         Let me look … let the light freeze just there
            on these love worn hands and new grayed hair
         softly now … go and see your child
            go … look … with your eyes that can feel and smile
         That your children, so loved, can die … its unbelievable
            their small coats still buttoned up.
         and your wife, with her warmth at night
            and all those photograph albums shared
               the cups she’s dried with care
                  and the small wrinkles that seem to run
                     where once was young and fair.
         Go, my friend, and walk the house and touch the wood
            and sit among it … your midnight kin
         and let the walls come round you … and the moments wait
            while you think how frail, …how frail is this love
         That a child, you’ve dressed for school
            can die, a bullet’s glove, on a concrete step
         and that the woman who’s shared all those years
            can become just a statistic in some foreigner’s newspaper
         Some day these all, the child, warm wife, and wood
            could be torn from your page of life
         and your cups go broken … their skin grow cold
            while pityless politicians
               vie for their intangible goods….
                                    Gallagher
                                    12 January 1983
                                       Dallas, TX

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —