Why Don'T You Leo
Death isn’t that significant, is it?
just like life is nothing peculiar.
The importance, however, is that life is given
to an individual only once and cannot be shared with others,
whether it was acquired through one’s own will or given by God.
And if that is true, why didn’t you, Leo, hold onto God’s man
and wrestle like Jacob, the human trash, the crafty swindler,
until God granted His assurance of extended life?
Or, at least, cried with no food or drink but holding onto
God for His mercy for a week, like David did
when his first-born child between Bathsheba died.
I thought, however, that God would let you live longer
even though you did not beg for extended life, because
you were an extraordinary human being a man of hunger
and thirst for righteousness, because you agonized over
others’ sufferings and comforted them to lessen their burdens.
Nonetheless, we are so dull-witted and ignorant
that though death stares at us in the face we all thought
that we would live together our wonderful friend, Leo,
until the day you finished your unfinished works.
For the world of spirit is deeply contaminated with evil
and the physical things are widely polluted with unwanted
human made wastes. Instead of the present, you tried to live
in the past.
However, you always wrote your past down
in a beautiful way, and bound it as books of memory
to share your thoughts with your neighbors.
Our dear friend Leo! you visited the hospitals of lonely sufferers,
the beds of wounded veterans, who faded away from our memories,
the warriors who fought for the name of our nation to warfare in 1945 European theatres and Pacific islands; 1953 at the gloomy wet peninsula where never ending rain kept pouring; 1975 at the horrifying deep jungle surrounded by flying bamboo spears.
You visited the house of the blind for disadvantaged ones,
the house of those forgotten in old age, bringing unforgettable stories to comfort them. Yet you cannot stand still and watch the troubled times therefore you went to the politicians and administrators not in the form of a clamorous showy instigator but persuading them quietly as a hidden activist.
Although you have left us too early, we are living in your memory
and because we live in your memory, we will succeed in your dream
and continue to carry it out until our days are passed,
O, therefore, our wonderful friend Leo! Rest in peace
with your beautiful and unforgettable memory forever and ever.
Copyright © Su Ben | Year Posted 2015
Post Comments
Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.
Please
Login
to post a comment