L MILTON HANKINS Poems

Before the lion-tempered winds of March appear
With violent gusts and maddened frays
To thwart the jubilant return of Spring
My envisioned spirit craves the Summer days.
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Lady Liberty's torch will slowly solemnly rise
During these sixty-plus days of uncertain sorrows
Before we, the people, can lift our moistened eyes
And think about brighter, more positive tomorrows.
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F ranklin betrays the spiritual values his father, Billy,
R eflected in the deepest part of his being, a man
A dored around the world for his
N oble speech and god-fearing behavior
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That dirty green hearse
(the first one I've ever seen)
Mushed through traffic
Like a Notre Dame back
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Before the dusk consumed the dark and gloomy day
My soul had readied terrors for the night which lay
Ahead, and promised tortuous hours of sleeplessness
No rest would come; no peace, no happiness.
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I shall not walk the paths they trod
Who spurned the truth with talk of God.
I shall not walk those paths!
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Can you tell me how it happened to me?
What brought me from shadow into light
Where faith once struggled inside my breast,
Now is peace beyond the sacred blight.
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The sky blackened in the west about sundown
Bringing a sudden specter of terror, to my surprise,
Like the chill that grips you when you hear gunshots
Up the block.Slacked mouth and wide-opened eyes
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Saturday, when I came out of the pharmacy
I was startled by a blast of horns and sirens
From a mile-long caravan of trucks and cars
With flags waving — American flags flying
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A young man came from Sandy Hook
To play his fiddle for our sheer pleasure
Scottish reels and an occasional Irish folk song
From memory, for little he gladly entertained
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