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From: bob@security.UUCP (Bob Jordan)
Newsgroups: net.poems
Subject: Thanksgiving
Message-ID: <583@security.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Nov-83 16:47:58 EST
Article-I.D.: security.583
Posted: Wed Nov  9 16:47:58 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Nov-83 13:15:57 EST
Distribution: net.women
Organization: MITRE Corp., Bedford MA
Lines: 44

I found this in a book called "Rising Tides", which is an anthology from about
10 years ago of selected works by women poets.  Anyway, it made an impression,
and I would like to share it.


                              THANKSGIVING

                            The beauty of
                                  the male face
                            acknowledging sorrow
                            of a man who hurts
                            and lets you see

                            I had almost forgotten
                                      my brothers
                            when you cried
                            I had almost
                                       learned to hate
                            when your face changed

                            In that room the air
                                    stopped being frozen
                            words stopped
                                  banging together
                            and I
                                 began to move

                            I never thought
                                      it would be a man
                            I thought women were alone
                            that your hands were
                                      like steel
                            until I held on to them

                            until you closed you eyes
                            and grief like
                                          red glass
                                            illumined you
                            and I could see again
                            with doubled vision

                                           Sharon Barba, copyright 1973