Sunday, October 05, 2008

to do you justice (In memory of Officer Brad Moody)

I tried to write words
that could do you justice
but they have failed me

my arsenal is empty
the syllables
the punctuation
the vocabulary lists
all frozen in perpetuity

Simple characters won't do.

I tried to write you words,
words that could explain
could hug, and heal
but with lackluster
they've been arraigned
tried
and acquitted.

Simple characters won't do.

all the dazzling metaphors
falling flakes of new snow
and the sizzling similes
searing like hot hopes
the lovely languid images of lighter days
of a man whom the uniform did not wear
he wore the uniform

I could write about your kind smile
that darkly funny sense of humor
that twinkled in your eyes
that brazenly defiant attitude
that refused to be convinced
by the unconvincing
if only because
you were your own man.

I could write about your
kind heart
the many days that you gave that heart
to others in need of one
the sweetness of a kind act
giving up a day off in the sunshine so that
kids in the Barretts might catch a ray


I could write about your conviction
your passion for
the dreams you carried so tenderly
like a small frog in the pocket of a child
who just discovered its greenness
the pages and pages of notes
taken copiously
as you envisioned Iron Tracks
free of "C' hats, full of basketball games
and old men talking longingly
shooting the breeze about days long gone

But these words, wouldn't do you justice.

Simple characters never do.

What can kind of character can make a word like:

Father, faithful?
or
friend, fierce?
Or
officer, exceptional?
Or
brother, bonded?

What kind of a word can
warm the hearts of so many just at the mere
smile?

And what kind of word is the word brother, really?
Seven short, unceremonious letters
used to describe a man
of simple heart,
but great character.