for Martin
As we slip into the new Dark Ages
you become more dear to me.
Your face, your smile
that carefully trimmed
never to turn gray hair.
We may not emerge from this darkness
in my lifetime.
And yet, I think of you
so often smiling,
or laughing outright;
your sturdy frame gallant
and ready for the fight.
Though it is true
you left home
like the Buddha
to find a way for all of us,
leaving your wife and children
to suffer
a most peculiar loneliness;
and yes,
the children, some of them
would be lost.
Still,
We miss you. Dreadfully.
As we miss
so many others
who left us with this one
desire:
that no matter how deep the fall
into obscurity and obscenity this new age
portends
Life might permit us
if only on the inside;
smiling and laughing
with you
among the solemn army
who went out
into the darkness
all those years ago,
always singing,
to examine the path
and be the light.