Judith Ann Levison

Two Men on a Bench in a Great City

I am no more
Than I am in this moment;
And yet, I am everything I have been.

It's a wonder, isn't it?
Our generation signals us to
Carry on, yet we are the last to know.
The grand children will tangle our lives:
You'll be in the wrong story,
And I will be left out.

I have unearthed the secret. It is kinder
Than I thought and the gargoyles above
My head lap the rain, rust sealed at their lids.

What did you say?
Oh, I have come to that too.
Finality. We can breathe now.
Dreams had their way with us
And those lost we tossed out.
No one was to blame. No.

Anything left is a reverence
I keep for my mother.

{Poem by Judith Ann Levison}