He looked out at the sea of human beings
In various positions of repose
Who had each walked a hundred miles.
When this is all over, without having
To kill anybody, I hope, I am going back to . . .
He allowed himself a long sad sigh of age.
Charleston was an empty, ravaged shell.
He felt the other's eyes on him
But held off raising his own
For the inevitable meeting.
Damn the fella's sincerity.
It was unnerving, almost insolent.
He was being addressed
Not as the government's emissary.
Not as a general. Just as a man.
When he did look up
His eyes were not altogether dry.
Richard said The historians
The anthropologists, theologians -
They all tried to make sense of us
Evolve us from this planet's origins
Connect us to the Earthen.
We are different.
Our skin is sensitive to the climatic extremes-
It burns in the sun, freezes in the cold.
Our lungs cannot survive the heights
Our brains are fried near the Equator.