Work nearly complete on the third book in my Dick Hardesty mystery series, with a basline sketched for the fourth. Also want to find the time to write some more poetry.

You are inivited to drop by www.gaypoetry.com and look under "D" for several of my poems, but I'll be using this newsletter to post some not found there or anywhere else on the net that I know of.

This one was posted briefly on Themestream before it went belly up. Hope you like it:

She Might Have Been a Statue

She might have been a statue
as she stood thre with her dog.
She gave no note as sunshine
swept away the morning fog.

In her hand, a battered cup,
on her ragged dress a sign
which underscored the obvious:
it simply said "I'm blind."

I watched the people passing by
as if she weren't there;
a sea of stylishh outfits
and salon-sculptured hair.

She stood alone, impassive,
lost in some private dream;
an unseen, unseeing island
in a roiling, rushing stream.

And though the street was noisy,
I felt that I would tell
the sound of one coin in her cup
as clearly as a bell.

At last she signaled to her dog,
and they slowly moved away.
It seemed we'd both been on that street
much longer than a day.

I ws overcome with anger;
I could not fahom why
no one had stopped to help her--
but neither, then, had I.

I don't think I'm uncaring;
I hope I'm not unkind.
But one need not be sightless
to be completely blind.

And something deep inside me
was glad she could not see
how totally ashamed I was...
not of her; of me.

I took it as a lesson
from which I learned one fact:
it's not enough to empathize:
one also has to act.

Copyright 2001, Dorien Grey


Until next time, take care, be kind, and be happy.

Dorien

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