After glow

I hobbled up the walkway

From Hoboken

Leaning so heavily on my cane

I nearly fell

Wounded in some conflict

I never intended to fight

But refused to wave

A white flag

“Concede but never surrender,”

an old Viet Vet once told me,

“Retreat, regroup, even move on

if you have to, but never give in.”

In the breeze off the harbor

All this seemed moot

Golden flowers licking their lips

As I passed,

Fishermen casting their lines

Near where the walkway turned

On the Weehawken side

Sail boats with lowered sails

Floating in a cove so peaceful

I could not help but catch their drive

Though I could still see across the cove

The building where I should have been

And the meeting I was supposed to attend

Too far away to hurry back for,

If there was anything to hurry to

When peace and flowers

Showered me here in their after glow

Telling me just how great life can be.