Boston Marathon, 2013

In the subsequent vacuum
we turned to CNN for answers
and there he is,
standing head and shoulders above
the reporting rabble clustered round him
like apostles hoping for a miracle.

He patiently replied to questions
he already answered, his mind
still on the past four hours in surgery
removing shrapnel from six year old legs
and the last shreds of flesh that attached
a twenty year old beauty to her foot.
His weariness was undisguised yet he listened
to request he could not fill.

He was darkly handsome, movie-star material,
but I had tears in my eyes watching
his struggle for composure
as he backed away apologizing
to return to carnage

and I fell a little in love right then.

But now that's history
and there is progress,
success, triumph. But Martin
is still dead, his mother oblivious,
coma-bound and his little sister
still thinks she has two legs.