Poem: "Lovely Appear" for Margaret Hassan (1944-2004)

Too well I know dark pictures of your face
Caught by your captors’ camera
And shown on nightly news-
The shock and pain I could not change
Or take away.

Madame Margaret, children called you-
From Baghdad to Mosul through bombings and embargoes
You brought medicine and food,built hospitals
And everywhere they’d smile and call your name

For them, I hold this picture in my mind-
You, smiling into sun,
Seeing something, up and distant
Something joyful-unexpected-
Love, Margaret, Love