Testament
From the corner of my eye
I see them
Not to be helped
Not to be deleted
Just a shutter click within
On a freeway overpass in midday
The sea wind even here
Tossing at possessions
They scramble to keep
Her face turned from me
Her hair long and grey
Her hands spread
As in supplication
Across the shopping cart
His face turned slightly up
His hair, too, long and grey
His beard a holy man’s beard
His hands grasping at plastic
Along the desert pavement
I speed by safe and warm
My reusable grocery bags
Full and righteously lined
On the seat behind
Muffled by traffic
I imagine their voices
A lost psalm trailing
In the light September wind.
Karen
Dec. 2013
(Karen Kellum used by permission)