I Did Not Mourn For Kennedy Poem by Francis Duggan

J F K who was shot dead in 63 were he alive today
He may be in a wheelchair now his back was bad they say
And he would be in his late eighties and have endured years of pain
And thinking of the glory days he'd never see again.

Those shots by Oswald fired in Dallas Town they rang from shore to shore
And made the World news headlines for three weeks or even more
But all the talk of him did not bring him back and without him life went on
And many good people since then to the Grim Reaper have gone.

And why all the fuss about the death of one human being I cannot help but wonder why
Since millions of people since 63 in wars and famines did die?
And they were decent people too though nothing of them said
And they are buried in mass graves the poor forgotten dead.

The teenagers of 63 the grand parents of today
And some I went to school with now with the departed lay
And that shot that rang around the World now a fading memory
Of just one more reminder of human mortality.

He did not live on to grow old though his was a glorious span
And I did not mourn for Kennedy since I did not know the man
But my sympathies are with the poor for none to mourn their loss
And through their brief and tragic lives they bore a heavy cross.