Just Life

Just Life

The man whose son’s brain

has been virtually eviscerated

by shrapnel in Iraq and who’s been

reduced to a caregiver 24/7 says

it’s just life that it’s happened this way

he says, without a trace of self-pity,

it’s just life, as does the woman

whose schizoid son has just been admitted

to an institution, the man trembling

with Parkinson’s disease,  the quadriplegic

wrestling his way to the Special Olympics

all these heroic ones saying it’s just life

and I can’t help but wonder what I would say

were I in their position, I can’t help but wonder

what I, with my intact limbs and my oh-so-frequent

lack of nobility would say, would I say oh poor me

would I grin and bear it like Job or would I cry out

with Luke will not God bring about justice

for his chosen ones…Will he keep putting them off?

would I complain, wail, beat my chest

bury my head in the sand, or would I align

myself, amidst all my blessings, with those

nobler than I am, would I gaze up at the moon,

at everything I have ever loved and say

not a just life, just life.