their love will never warm a heart
their hearts will never break or soar
my loss was so many years of love in the making
so many hands held and triumphs felt and dreams built
so many childhoods and birthdays and spelling bees and football games
and my loss was so few moments in the making
so few bullets flown and blasts and chaos and mystery and grief
so few explainations given, so few moments for tears and terror
dark too quickly
gone too soon
every mother, every father
mourns today in my mourning
all of america for a moment, in this day of darkness
has lost a child in Virginia,
too quickly for love and too long for remembering
josh chernila 4/16/07
The wind its death-lament
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervorless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead,
In a full-throated evensong
Of joy illimited.
An ancient thrush, frail, gaunt and small,
With blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew,
And I was unaware.