For M In Greece Poem by r james sterzinger

my wishes sit side by side with you
as you leave these Americas
to join family who are waiting for you
near the Aegean's blue waters.
my wishes carry with them
hopes of deep safety and Godspeed
as you fly to the land of Titans
and mythic gods and warriors
The Spartan warriors are long dead
their descendants lie on beaches
now ripening themselves as olives
and the words of Homer
and Aeschylus lie sullen in books

II.
Here I wait on the edge of another
winter me, lemming anxious
knowing I should travel someplace
the brown autumn leaves are in agreement
they curse at me in a dry smoker's whisper
as the wind wakens them
from the cottonwood: 'It's too late for us too damn late'
I hear them, but give them little regard. I
know the dangers. I have always known the dangers.

III.
Here I sit in the Twin Cities as permanent as marble
a lesser art than the statutes and busts of marble
that inhabit the museums that your eyes will see
face to immovable face. Their fragments and torsos
more a work of art than me.
They however can't pray that you are having a great time
and that God will give you safe return
I can, but that is God's art His will on me....