full and fair

amidst our grime, she is a jewel discovered, 
a rare thing in the sand--
she bends to touch our misery, but the poet speaks:


"with all respect, you've never failed like us before.
we nightly pray you never shall: we hope in you!
for you are full and fair, your life-lit eyes held wide
in these teeming streets of gutter'd skeletons;
we gaunt bones will clatter here for many years to come
and bid you onward go! we beg you soon forget you ever saw us thus!
for we have put our forward dreams in you:
no-one hopes in us; not even us. we are despair."


the pretty thing comes up abrupt; startles;
and quickly steps around. we are once more alone--
yet also of the poet skeleton had once these words been writ:


"we hope in you! for you are full and fair, 
your life-lit eyes held wide--"






3/15/10
10/10/10