"The Aftermath"
The Wind beat sore down upon our flat
I lay listening all around me silently
The hurried footsteps of people coming in to rob us
And take away all that we had left
I listened in fear but it was a peaceful fear
For I've set my horizons on heaven
It was strange, hearing people talk about you
As if you were a bit of scrap
Not worthy to sit on the ragged furniture
And bartering for your clothes
"She already has a dress" the quick voices utter angrily
And "She must be taken away"
"She is very sick" I was reading Hamlet at the time
There are people coming and going around the fringes
Of my consciousness my very tattered mind
I have become the subject of eyesore gossip
I smile to myself to realize how quiet I have been
In all this clamor enduring
Oh banalities my father has not stooped to yet
And the abrasion of dignity thought to be God-Given
I wondered at all this without understanding
And said a little prayer, and went on reading
Like a rat-infested place
Or the sight of a disaster that had already occurred
Now muttered at and skittering happily across the floor
In the epicenter of the aftermath
In Jesus' Name,
Amen