And it came
Like a cautious
Step on a
Freshly iced pond
His voice from
Afar hesitant tentative
Like the hand
Of a child
To the jowls
Of sleeping dogs
It was not
What I expected
Or dreamed or
Thought it’d be
It was simply
A new stranger
Once again asking
For some time
Absent the cacophony
The bombshell barrage
Of our last
Campaign months ago
It is now
Peace time now
A time to
Collect the dead
And start over
Just as friends
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 