My poems

 A CONFEDERATE SOLDIER'S PRAYER  Author Unknown, (Attributed to a battle weary C.S.A soldier near the end of the war)   I asked God for strength, that I might achieve;  I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.    I asked for health, that I might do greater things;  I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.    I asked for riches, that I might be happy;  I was given poverty, that I might be wise.    I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;  I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.     I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;  I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.    I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.  Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.  I am among all men most richly blessed.  -------------  Addendum from me:  I asked for security, that I might be safe...

  Bara Bagh Cenotaphs:    Life still sounds within the empty golden tombs jutting out from sand and stones and skeletal broken twigs  First customers for the guide - 50 rupees, first customer - 30 rupees please  The broken tooth gravestones stand askew among the yawning columns as sparrows call from dome to dome  The guides flit, shadows watching like the ghosts long since moved on.  Next first customer arrives - he goes.  There is no death here - only absent memory created and left.  It's all gone to pieces.  ***    Villages:    Brushwood doors and log piles  Mud huts and domes of dung  Two boys sit in limpid shade of a scrub tree  The desert sand stretches out a dusty minefield  So much sand - what do they do?  The men have left for the city -  Women, children and the old are left now.  We are the ghouls watching the poverty in this village of the hopeless  Locked away safe be...