Janet Kolstein
Samson and Goliath
Outside my fourth story window I could see for miles.
The sky lay softly on the low mountains,
the country and the city not so far apart,
and the sea not so very far away.
I used to imagine living in a foreign country,
just not like this.
Samson and Goliath dominated the horizon.
My doctor had pointed out
the two mighty cranes,
sometimes appearing as still
as an ancient colossus.
If I looked down, I could see
an unused swimming pool,
and, out towards the street and the traffic,
I saw a couple young medicos
with somewhere, quick, to go,
their white coats flapping
with the wintry air.
There would be work to do,
a lot of lifting and lowering of spirits,
and expectations,
a resetting of goals,
an activation of steel.
The Red Wheelbarrow Poets 