Famous Reporter # 26: December, 2002

 

                

         Anne Kellas

 

              Afternoon

 

 

          The distant barking of the dogs of war

          and the panicked laughter of children

          caught up in the autumn afternoon,

          with the leaves running,

          and the trees holding on,

 

          and always the music

          hidden in the order of it all

          the condition of all things good,

          aspired to, met

          in this now-ness of bone, fibre, pen,

 

          this soft voice of knowledge

          saying, at last,

          Peace rising up out of its torpor of sleep

          staggering into the sunlight,

          almost too late.