[Vision2020] Moving poem

[Bruce and Jean Livingston]

This poem, written by occasional Vision2020 contributor Debbie Gray, wife of Latah County Sheriff's Deputy Phil Gray, was published in the Spokesman Review a few years back.  It haunted me when I read it then.  I had to retrieve it and re-read it after this weekend's tragedy.  It brings home the fact that our law enforcement officers and their families live with the fear of the unknown events to come, every day when they go to work.  

I take my hat off to them all for the service they perform and their bravery in the line of duty --  and mourn with them and the community at large over the tragic shootings.

Bruce Livingston

Reprinted with permission of the author:
  To Phil.

   

  You

  Leave for work.

  Dayshift, swing, the ominously named

  Graveyard

  I

  Sometimes watch

  You go

  Will you return?

  Yes.

  Or a knock on the door of 

  our first (now last?)

  little home.

  Someone from The Office. A chaplain?!

  Go away, I will not hear you. No.

  But I secretly rehearse in my mind

  What

  I will do. Say. React.

  I know it's coming. Of course it is.

  That's the story

  Of my life.

  You say

  You didn't think about IT before we had

  Our little man. He needs his daddy. 

  And now this sweetest baby girl.

  I,

  You calmly explain,

  Would survive. 

  But our babies need a daddy.

  I have my doubts. On my survival

  Without you. What is my life?

  Sure, the house would be cleaner. Much

  Quieter.

  I would probably

  Adjust. Survive. Exist.

  But that is not a Life.

  Every day, people survive 

  This.

  My worst nightmare.

  But I refuse.

  I contemplate:

  Kevlar hat. Helmet.

  Body armor. Kevlar socks, even.

  What's the big deal? 

  So it costs a lot?. 

  Isn't your life

  Worth it? It is to me. But

  You'd get hot. And itch.

  So you go. Off to your day.

  Protect and serve.  

  But

  Please

  Come home

   

  Copyright 2004 Debbie Gray
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