Back before anger

had a limit on characters

threats were unveiled

in person.

The elements of disorder

had no keyboards

or code

but leather and laces

and soles.

Threats to democracies

visited democracies

to tempt, provoke, and forbode

to sit among the great statesmen of the era

and make mischief.

Your masses will rise

refuseniks will die

and Sputnik will blot the sun

when the shoe hit the table

the world was stunned

but only the moment was won.

Anger can be a sneeze

or a chronic disease

an interlude

or an eternity

a cartoon

or a world war.

 

-Danny Grosso

As I looked backward

from the last car of the train

and saw with perspective

ruin victorious

about the plain

through charred remains

of once verdant promise

I saw the brightest color

that ever was made.

 

How life is

is life like this

a shock of meaning

among the lurid ennui

and a color

where only yesterday lay

some muddy branches

and the drab of decay.

 

The baby is born

and the longing ceases.

Sometimes you hear one voice

in a crowd

and the moment is ceaseless.

 

– Danny Grosso