Schaffner Page 2

hours down the debilitated trunk road,
schoolmates and our chaperones competed
in expressions of sympathetic awe,
knowing on some level -- even there and then --

everything we could be accused of, yet
still amazed at the wood sculptor's portrait
of a warrior, muscled and serene, carved
with a private passion that attempted
not representation but grace, as if
whatever god we had could do that, too.






M. A. Schaffner writes: "I work as a civil servant in Washington, spending lunchtimes feeding the lineal descendants of the squirrels fed by Ambrose Bierce a century ago." He has published a collection of poetry, The Good Opinion of Squirrels (Word Works) and a novel, War Boys (Welcome Rain).