Saturday, August 29, 2015

The Winds of Change


Had my father been killed in the war, and had my mother been
Born to poor farmers in the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta,
Had the arrival of the A-train in New York been running 5-minutes
Late one day, had the lioness missed her prey on the Serengeti

Plains, had the corn crop in Nebraska succumbed to a late hailstorm
Before the harvest, had the lone goose lost his flock in the fog dur-
ing the winter migration, had a certain sock been dropped on its
Trip to the laundry, had one child failed her math test at the school

Year’s end, had the old man died one day short of his ninety-fifth
Birthday, had the ship-wrecked shipmate survived, had the wind
Blown 2-kmph stronger out of the south on the Steppes of Russia in
May, half a world away, had the Big Bang, 14-billion years ago, errup-
ted one day late, had a young woman said, no, on her very first date…

I may have never been born to speak of all this today.


Chris Hanch  8-29-15

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