Child
To guide a child you must give him attention
that fills the spaces inbetween his expression
so that by the very form of your being
you form the child you love.
gallagher
25 Dec 1974
— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —
Like looking in the mirror at myself, great mystery
this boy, my son, lies here and I look on him...
born of me to begin again the climb
he lies innocent of all he will become.
The great water of evolution, 3 billion years strong
flows from his mother and I to be together in him
mixed... and more than its parts.
Dumb animal, I, I try to consider it
characters beyond comprehension here, living, mine.
I can only feel.
gallagher
27 jun 75
- about Danny
— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —
Christmas Eve
With watery blue eyes and a Norwegian accent,
Hallard told me, with dignity,
how it is to live on, afterwards.
Not much to do at home;
just the little dog she loved, waiting.
Chuck's wife, Etta, had said
Hallard was sleeping on those same sheets
she had put down after the funeral....
Sleeping in those same pajamas
and never cleaning up after the dog.
Just spending the evenings in the bars
until it was time to go to work again.
Chuck talked a lot; a compulsion.
He told me about the doctors
and how hard it was to get the straight
about those spots on his x-rays.
One doctor was going to pass him off to another
without asking him. But he cut him short.
If they wouldn't consult with him, he'd look elsewhere.
Rose said he's dying of cancer and that Etta knows it
but that they don't think he does.
Etta, I had thought, must be a little simple.
How she walked around and smiled meekly.
Unobtrusively passing in and out of our moments,
not sad - just brittle - like a hurt child;
trying to be good.
Hallard sat telling me how nice it was
to have the family together at Christmas...
the holidays were lonely times since his wife had passed on.
And I'd been tolerant - pleasant to all of them;
Rose's relatives and their holiday gathering.
A bit boisterous and condescending and bored,
and I'd been telling Rose, with barely concealed pride,
how well I was putting up with it all.
Hallard will go back to his Los Angeles apartment and his dog
and Chuck and Etta will go back back to Washington like Rose's parents
and these moments won't ever pass again for any of us.
We won't sit here again in our ignorance and pain,
the young and the old, the condescending and the patient.
But it's not so bad for us to be here together.
They see us as spirits yet unbent
and they can yet find some meaning and hope
in our ignorance and in our condensation and confidence.
They were young once.
And we, if our eyes were opened, would see great courage there
in their eyes and their hours, in their courage without cheering.
Courage, in the face of death, aging and agony
and in the face of our condescending youth.
gallagher
24 Dec 76
— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —