Life, 1963

                     —Others found out other ways

At school, perhaps in science class

  The vice principal’s porous voice

    Pausing on the PA system

At work, perhaps on a sales call

  A secretary rushing by 

    Waving a transistor radio

Or at home, perhaps serving tea

  Neighbors in the living room

    Silenced by the TV news

*

Three years pass, six years old

  Digging through drawers

    In my parents’ back room

I find the black-eyed magazine

  Inside, its frozen tableaux

     —The car, the street, the plaza

His elbows jerking up like wings

  Me, alone, when the news hits home

    His pink wife crawling away

New South, 2008