We've all seen the footage,
those grainy, black and white scenes
in documentaries,
the news
and watched depictions
in war movies;
POWS marching,
Jews herded to the camps,
endless lines
of refugees...
And then comes
a gesture
of charity,
kindness
like a symbol of goodwill...
Someone,
some plain peasant angel
tosses an apple
hands a piece of bread
( rye, perhaps)
and the apple is caught,
the bread grabbed,
with dirty, skeletal hands
then devoured,
hidden, saved-
too meager to
sustain
but cherished
emblems
of hope,
of humanity still...
Was it something
like that
for me?
Lost,
when an angelic Muse
( The Holy Spirit?)
handed me this
peculiar gift,
poetry-
miraculous
how it's sustained me
for 37 years.
Like the seeds of a single apple
produce an orchard,
like Jesus feeding multitudes
with multiplied loaves...
And what of bread and apples, poetry and seeds?
Are they all gestures
of hope
symbols
of kindness,
goodwill
emblems of
humanity's power
of angels among us-
still.