Before The Parade Passed Me By Poem by Jim Boone

</>'Don't let it be forgot, that once there
was a spot, for happily ever-aftering,
that's known as Camelot.'

Before The Parade
Passed Me By
I heard explosions
of minds gone mad
lives gone bad
and finished
tears of disbelief
and sorrow/despair
cries of rage
and pain.

Joy hit the dirt
as bullets split the a i r
crack one
crack two
crack three.

A little boy saluted
a sister pondered
a wife watched an era
slip away
a mother looked
to the future
as the parade
now in slow motion
soundless
ended
re-routed
into history.

1963

'Ask not what your country can do
for you, but what you can do
for your country.'