Once upon a day
Once upon a day
The trees dropped leaf
scant cover
Torn away bare to sight
Stripped of plumage ripped
of pretenses
Shivering it stood,
daytime, not yet night
Once upon a day
Life ganged up, humanity
turned cheek
“Tough love you know” and hastened
away
Walking wounded bone weary
shivering
Close to froze even closer
to fate being food deprived
In that state
Once upon a day
Empathy born from horror
Our grandfather’s war was
fought
To bring food and blankets
with dear coin
Gladly we paid to stave
off starvation
Cold exposure staying that
chilled kiss
Of the long sleep
Most of a world away
I wish I could just say
Nothing but a memory
Pictures pinned angrily to
the wall
Mr. Mortimer’s class,
history, documenting
Dachau, Auschwitz some
place near
Walt’s dream castle, New
Schwanstein
Atrocity, holocaust death
camps
Technicolor magic kingdom of Disney fame
No matter the beauty
The mount with castle
astride it
Images tattoo inside my
closed eyelids
Twenty-four years later
will never go away
But sadly that I cannot
say, no,
For that starved and
broken look
Now fated also to never go
away
I saw too close to our
home
Sickeningly
Like those from that war
half a world away
But on a clean window,
downtown Oregon City
I stood in front of for a
moment earlier today
One slight moment upon
this day
Just one was enough
Quickly dropped gaze
My reflection,
Emaciated…bone weary,
And I limped away
Christopher McQueeney 12/28/2013 3:55
A.M.
This was actually weeks
ago, but a woman walking past me today mirrored it…the time I saw her before
that, about two weeks ago, she spoke of her intention to go sleep in the woods…there
are starving and needy people n your neighborhood…a can of tuna costs a buck…a
funeral costs us our humanity
5 comments:
a funeral does cost our humanity...and there are so many in need...this time of year all the more...i am glad that she survived the night in the woods....hopefully we survive this life....
Profound piece, Chris.
very profound, and lovely. i love it best when you write from you heart. i know these are tough times but your words are gold.
love
kj
Better and best wishes in the new year, Chris
Love
kj
Kj said it so well. No one my friend servives this life tho. We try our best to make our way dispite that fact. Most times we fall so short but we try again because we can. Love and light to you chris.love and light in abundance.
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