r-kv-r-y quarterly
spring 2006
poetry
If We Lose This Child

        by Anthony Robinson

How pale are these stars which mark the hours
And like planets wandering in the deep night
These worlds of pain that never meet
Still circle on in distant pathways:

The cripple staggering on a nearby corner
And families living under the highway bridge

Oh, but his pain comes
So slow, so close!

In the shadow of the solar wheel
In the mysterious cadence of moon
In this death's unseemly market:

Dark blood and white cloth