hermionesviolin | [Lent: day 22/40]

Flinn, on the Bus

Three hours after the buildings fell,
he took a seat beside me.
Fresh out of prison, after 24 months,
You're my first hello!
Going home to Mom,
a life he would make better this time,
how many times
he'd been swept along before,
to things he should never have ...
drink and dope,
but now he'd take responsibility.
Lawyers had done him wrong
and women too. He thought
about revenge, now he was out.
But I'm in charge. I'll think
before I act. I don't ever
want to go there again.
Two wrongs don't make a right.
Somehow, in his mouth, that day,
it sounded new.
The light came through the window
on a gentle-eyed man in a
"Focus on the Game" T-shirt,
who had given up
assault with deadly weapons,
no more, no good!
A man who had not seen TV in weeks,
secluding in his cell so colleagues
wouldn't trip him up,
extend his stay.
Who had not heard the news.
We rolled through green Oklahoma,
the bus windows made all the trees look bent.
A trick of refraction--
Flinn looked at his free hands
more than the fields,
turned them over in his lap,
no snap judgments, no quick angers,
I'll stand back, look at what happens,
think calmly what my next step should be.
It was not hard to nod,
to wish him well. But could I tell
what had happened in the world
on his long-awaited day,
what twists of rage greater
than we could ever guess
had savaged skylines, thousands of lives?
I could not. He'd find out
soon enough. Flinn, take it easy.
Peace is rough.

-- September 11, 2001

from 19 Varieties of Gazelle: poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shihab Nye

This poem opens Nye's introduction to this poetry collection. As with yesterday's poem, I'm not hugely struck by this poem. However, the line "Peace is rough" really sticks with me.

"Strong is fighting! It's hard, and it's painful, and it's every day."
-Buffy in "Amends" (3.10)

Also that idea that even after resurrection there is still work to be done. (Yes, when one is looking for Lenten poems everything starts to look Lenten-appropriate.)

Sidenote: found this while Googling for quotes.