if only

if only you could talk

i think you’d have
some stories to share

about where you have been
things you have seen
and what you have come to deem
precious

i would sit enraptured
by the tendering of your heart
and your guttural voice

trembling

“A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old……..The affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture.”  Abraham J. Heschel