Poem – STILL HAUNTED (DALLAS ‘99) (By Ray Gallucci)

 

STILL HAUNTED (DALLAS ‘99)

 

The cheering crowd three dozen years

Ago’s no longer there,

But, as I watch, their ghosts appear

And toward the limo stare.

 

A sunny noon in late November

Nineteen sixty-three;

A lady dressed in pink remembered

Waving happily.

 

The honoree next to his wife,

The Man whom crowd adores.

Except for One who aims his rifle

From that upper floor.

 

With second shot, Man clutches throat.

With third, explodes his head.

Dumbfounded crowd runs to and fro,

Pink dress now splattered red.

 

Though covered now’s the Grassy Knoll

Where Abe Zapruder stood,

His haunting frames forever roll

And curse this neighborhood.

 

Now fully grown the trees; the marble

Monuments now stand.

Depository’s windows are

Now touched by children’s hands.

 

But permanent the images

So tragically impressed

Upon the spatial fabric which

Was temporally meshed.

 

Like Roman soldiers marching through

A forest’s ancient paths,

These phantoms may appear anew

Though centuries have passed.

 

Once memories have long forgotten

What transpired when,

These ghosts of tragedy begotten

Will remind again.

 

(published in POETIC VOICES, September 2000;

DANA LITERARY SOCIETY ONLINE JOURNAL, November 2002)

 

[su_gallucci]