ALL MY SONS

                                             

I have three

 

Fish on my mulberry tree,

 

Boys bred they say

 

As heirs to strife and

 

Marks for cannons not yet forged.

 

Only wonder clothes them now

 

And I wince to think on what will fell them.

 

Yet if men did not make sons

 

Worlds could not be lost

 

And lives in the bargain.

 

No lost lives and tragedy gone?

 

Think what void

 

Awaits the banishment of loss!

 

(9/2/68)