Mark Twain
If the ashes of Mark Twain
lie in the Mississippi River
then I’m sure he does rise up some days
emerge from dark polluted depths
to walk over water to land
and scans the horizon for change
being a curious sort,
he sees the crisis rise again
another war on the horizon
and shakes his craggy head to say no not again
he hopes truth-sayers still exist
who don’t have to wait until their dead.
December 2002
Copyright Credit: Angie Trudell Vasquez, "Mark Twain" from Love in War Time. Copyright © 2013 by Angie Trudell Vasquez. Reprinted by permission of Art Night Books.