SUBJECT>One for Geoff and the general readership POSTER>David Halitsky EMAIL>dhalitsky@cumulativeinquiry.com DATE>1110214933 IP_ADDRESS>proxy2.west.saic.com PREVIOUS> NEXT> 84458 IMAGE> LINKNAME> LINKURL>

Eine Kleine Klezmer: Thanksgiving, 1999

She barely can remember now
her daddy's good-night kiss
Cause she's spent almost forty years
on learning not to miss
the father that she really never
got a chance to know
and how he would have loved her
if he could have watched her grow.

I've heard it all, how sparrows fall
when He says it's their time
how good and bad come hand in hand
as part of His design.
But once again, the same as then,
there isn't any why -
she didn't need to learn
another new way not to cry.

I still wonder if she understood
why her mother had on black,
and why that one horse passed them by
with noone on its back.
Cause all the newsmen noted
as they watched her on that day
how well-brought up she had to be
to hide her tears away.

I've heard it all, how sparrows fall
when He says it's their time
how good and bad come hand in hand
as part of His design.
But once again, the same as then,
there isn't any why -
she didn't need to learn
another new way not to cry.

She must have heard us gossip
how her father carried on
and how her mother didn't stay
a widow very long.
But if it ever got to her
thru all her tender years
no microphone or camera
ever caught her close to tears.

I've heard it all, how sparrows fall
when He says it's their time
how good and bad come hand in hand
as part of His design
but once again, the same as then,
there isn't any why -
she didn't need to learn
Another new way not to cry.

It's already thirty-six times
that she's faced this holiday.
And now there's one more dinner plate
she'll have to take away.
So this week when you bow for grace
with those you love the best,
beg some for our unwilling saint
of loss and loneliness.