
LEGACY
January 12, 2014
Somewhere in a remote library in Alexandria
lies a volume of history written 3000 years ago,
it speaks of Solomon and David and brings them to life
a legacy of the Egyptian writer
Somewhere in a church in Connecticut
a congregation is burying a town elder and
singing Amazing Grace to his memory
A former businessman, a former mayor
Afterwards a luncheon is held at the county building
that now bears his name
Somewhere in the Patent Office
Numbers float around like an anonymous hall of fame
of inventors of shoelaces and paperclips and photographs
And those floating numbers live on beyond the people behind the name
When John Lennon wrote Imagine
Could he imagine that over 30 years after his death
we still contemplate his charge: Imagine all the people living life in peace
The foundering newspaper and the instant online world both blow Imagine to pieces
Another senseless death without legacy
Somewhere in a midwestern concert hall
Mozart’s Requiem is played, he lives on and on
and down the road in the lecture hall Leaves of Grass is
debated by college freshmen and Whitman lives on and on
VanGogh’s Starry Night sells for more than Alaska did
and he lives on and on
Somewhere in the back of my closet
In a black briefcase stuffed with crumpled 20 lb paperstock
and blotted with various fonts and white-out
lies my legacy for family and mankind
Words of wisdom and intelligence for all the world to see
If only I have the time to set it free