Archive for the ‘NZ Society of Authors’ Category

1983-01-12 On Sophies choice

Wednesday, January 12th, 1983
                        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 and 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
               and 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 ... and their skin grow cold
            while pitiless politicians
               vie for their intangible goods....
                                    Gallagher
                                    12 January 1983
                                       Dallas, TX
 

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

1983-02-06 The Winds of War

Sunday, February 6th, 1983

               The Winds of War


      The winds of war and I can feel the sinews of time


         about to rip from their anchors


      children, customs, love, forms, history, memory


         torn thru every part, across every line


      Here a picture of Poland's jews


         a wedding day the day before Germany invades


      I remember a museum... a few books... black and white photos


         of people in black clothes and funny hats


            all gone, all gone


      neighborhoods, blocks, buildings, families, marriages


         children, furniture, clothes, books, records, memories


            all gone


         but for these isolated pieces in the museum


                                 02-06-83


                                 SJC




— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —