Gerda's Knife I watched 'Winds of War' on TV and then I turned out the light And, on the stairs, in the dark, ascending I suddenly 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, I felt the eyes of countless men as their hands caressed the handle's symbol reveling in the power and purpose of their 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 the years of my childhood. A time machine from another reality. A time that almost changed my world. I look at old photos now, black and white, and their images seem so distant and unreal to me. but with your father's knife I could still hear the flags snapping in the fervent air of those years and I could feel the force of it all across the years. GALLAGHER 7 Feb 83 San Juan Capistrano
— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —