The Reckoning

You combed your hair left handed

a few stray strands surrendered

to the indolent watchman

on guard at time's indifferent border

his shrug of the shoulders recognition

the reckoning of the insignificance

sensed though so seldom articulated about

some well past before secret chord

       Hallelujah

this whisper stammered at dawn

like a child's most treasured incantation

to see the night mares off

to sing the song of the breathing

when walking among the wizened factories

cacophonous chirps of streets still un-swept

of the unemployable detritus of

the all but spent vigor of a life so well used.

Ken e Bujold

© 2022

Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

You took me to the city streets at dawn where the homeless were clearly evident and I found myself saying, how did it come to this? What is your story? Whenever I see people street living, I always think, there but for the grace of God. Bad luck can come to anyone.

Chris

[Ken e Bujold]

Indeed Chris. There but the grace.... The indifference so many people show is a bitter pill for me to swallow. Drove me out of one city I considered paradise, and now grinds at me every day in the city I was raised in and now call home again.

[Chris Shaw]

I can't pass a homeless person by without asking what there story is. There was a young man in our area, the whole family befriended. My two grandchildren, my sister and myself. We did what we could. Books, coffees, sandwiches. Anyone can become homeless. Most are due to relationship breakups where they are turfed out of their homes.

[Ken e Bujold]

It takes little to be generous. We are not asked to make the pauper into a titan. If all you have on you at the moment is a pound, but you know you have more pounds on the horizon, what is so difficult about passing the one on you to the fellow who has none in his horizon? We are kindred souls I think

[Chris Shaw]

Empathy, just putting yourself into the shoes of another. That's all it takes.

[W. Barrett Munn]

Sounds like an ode to fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen. Or maybe not.

Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

not really, line of secret cord Hallelujah is obviously LC, but poem is wholly original beyond that. Just thought the secret chord fit. Mostly a take on old age end of life