[Jeffrey]

my fated course
in the pax atomica

at the eighteenth hour
the Limping Man came
slowly up the stairs,
whispering my name

you said "Daddy, run,
we'll escape into the night,"
but I gave you my gun
and took your bowie knife

................"Pop Zacchaeus held off the slavers
................with just a tin can and his left hook,
................laughing at their first shots, their wild eyes,
................quoting freely from the Good Book."

so I said, tear-blind
in the attic gloom.
you slipped out the old panes
and onto the porch

with my blade and held breath,
I heard him searching rooms
while you ran young and free
and I ran my fated course