1987-07-09 – Luxembourg

  Mankind is such a beginner 
     at this business of living in a finite world.
  Soviet society, European society, American society.
  I walk the streets and scan the faces.
  I see young girls on a playground; 
     the boys are just becoming real to them.
  A mother pushes a baby carriage looking so serious.
  Men, hard eyes, walking and smoking pass me.
  Motorcycles, signs, shop windows 
     and traffic all around.
  The sky shimmers over stones 
     that have stood here 'just so' for centuries.
  And the newspapers gather in many tongues 
     on the racks, murmuring.
  Today, I am here ... tomorrow I'll be gone 
     into the sky.
  Money and power and history pulse 
     just out of sight,
	just behind the headlines.
  It stares from the windows of banks 
     and government offices
        while mothers walk, children play 
           and the waiters wait.
  The crowds swirl by the newspaper racks 
     and the boys preen for young girls
	and the leaves stir in the grass.
  The air is cool here in Luxembourg
     where I walk in a breeze 
	that feels like the  silence in my mind.
  Bridges and greenery, moss stone walls, 
     a European park.
  The movies begin 
     and the faces pass;
        Moscow, Leningrad, Paris, Los Angeles
  So many stories of right and wrong;
     Socialist, Capitalist, hunger and wealth.
  Empty eyes, happy eyes, righteous eyes, proud eyes,
     eyes that cannot see the mother 
        and cannot feel the breeze.
  The symbolic mind ascendant; 
     trade, war, credit, capital,
        the balance of power.
  The windows stare above the streets
     and soft counters fall; papers signed, 
        symbols agreed upon
  And outside, love and compassion, 
     the child skins his knee, 
  The young girls dream, the couples walk, 
     a nun asks me in French for Rue St. Michael.
  Innocence in the sunlight 
     while the newspapers whisper
  The symbols gather against the silence and peace
     soft counters falling ... 
        counting the days, the dreams,
	   the dollars and the moments.
  Where is sanity?
		gallagher
		09 Jul 87
		Luxembourg

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