Page 14 - Contrast1962v6n1
P. 14

Taking careful aim, they shoot;
The balls click,
And roll quickly across the once green table top,
And fall into the pocket.

Some distance away,
Where the din of the busy downtown does not reach,
Stands the hospital,
With its smog-blackened bricks.
Up and down the long white halls strut the nurses,
The wheel-chairs, too, speed back and forth.
A lady cries,
A man, plagued with insomnia, begs for dope.
In the surgery mom, the tension is apparent,
As the young doctor bends over an emergency patient,
Trying to save the life of a fellow man.

The rows of apaTtment buildings line the streets,
Shabby in appearance,
They seem to be the outcasts of architecture.
But inside, they bear the resemblances of a comfortable home.
In a living room sits a father,
His young daughter curled up in his arms.
The birthmark on her cheek intensifies her childlike innocence;
The little giTI views the splendors of dreamland,
While her father views the climax of the late movie.

From out of nowhere comes the sound of sirens and whistles,
Screaming their message of danger,
Striking fear into the heart of every person.
On the streets, the people panic and begin to run,
Searching for those little signs marked "Shelter A rea."
An old man,
Stumbling along with a cane,
Is knocked down,

And is lost beneath the crowds of hysterical people.
T here is a blinding, lightning-like flash,
And an explosion that rocks the very earth ...

The morning breaks with brilliance,
The sun casting its light and warmth to the earth,

                                              12
   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19