The Weight of the World - pipTalk Forums

How to Join	Member's Area	Private Library	Search	Sanctuary		Login
Main Forums	Discussion	Tech Talk	Mature Content	Archives	A home without a wall, Our haven without ends, A circle we all call Our Family of Friends!

Kevo
Member

since 2004-06-02

Posts 466
Navarro County, Texas, USA

0 posted 2004-06-18 09:10 PM

The Weight of the World

Reverent friend worn thin
in timed procession of life,
fragile smile christens
weathered lips and worn jaw.

Callused hands hold on tightly
to the second hand of obstinance,
Trying to slow the fervent tick
of that unruly clock.

The atlas has been found
in the palm of your hand.
The map of successes and failures
is well drawn here.

You have seen more
than one should of the latter.
Yet, still your lips part,
however fragile,
in youth’s resistant smile.
Yet, innocence void still.

You have overcome all odds,
Your blood spilt,
Sacrificed for
the sovereignty of all.

You have buried
sons and daughters,
husbands and wives,
mothers and fathers,
brothers and sisters,
and those you cradled
amidst those desperate fields.

Your eyes speak louder than words
of times distant yet never forgotten
to lamenting masses born long after
your stars fell from on high.

Crows-feet run on,
attesting to trials of survival
from dustbowls
and our Great Depression
to the stench of death
upon Europe’s hallowed ground
and upon the beaches of Iwo Jima.

Trace the map
of your existential trials
through the years,
the smiles,
the laughter,
amd the tears.

You buried your innocence
with humility …and blood
so that sons and daughters
might know their own.

Scars,
some seen
and some unseen,
all thrive,
never truly healed
In this hero loved.

Perhaps death
would have been kinder,
more humane,
even palatable
in some regards.

I look upon your weighted back
falling with gravity’s cruel hand
and ladened by the woes
of this compromised world past.

Shoulders longing for release
crushed under the fascist boot
of long ago.

Knees weakened in prayer,
kneeling in want of sound resolve
and tempered tranquility.

How many years
have your knees worn into
this unforgiving floor?

Your relentless pursuit
for penance of heart
has left you callused
without understanding
it is our own hearts
in need of penance from you.

You have found me steady
my ageless friend.
Ready, at your bidding,
to carry your load home
to the staid hearts of free men.

Spurring these days forward
that they may, in time,
Break their bread with you
At the Hero’s table,
burying innocence yet again
so that others may not.

You were young,
You were vibrant,
You were fearless
And you were courageous.
Authors of the free world.

Regardless of age,
Regardless of scars,
I will remember you
…and so will my sons.

Copyright, Kevin V. Reese, 2004

Susan
Member Ascendant

since 2004-03-27

Posts 5104
walking the surreal

1 posted 2004-06-18 11:22 PM

You are just sooo darned good. Your style is so, the words elude me, yet when I read your work I am always inspired.

Susan

The whole of the Universe resides within each individual heart.

wordwizard
Member

since 2003-09-08

Posts 483
on the way to next world

2 posted 2004-06-19 07:23 PM

It is good to remember how we're able to be
'relatively' free but as the years will pass the memory will pass too until another leader will emerge from the masses who dares to ruffle the feathers of the establishment...

	⇧ top of page ⇧
All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format.