Looking out: God forbid!'

...God forbid!'

By Brandon Astor Jones

"The woods were made for he hunters of dreams,
The brooks for the fishers of song;
To the hunters who hunt for the gunless game
The streams and the woods belong." — From The Bloodless Sportsman, by Sam Walter Foss (1858-1911)

I love the people who read the words that I write in this space, be they friend or foe. Regular readers will know that my love for them and the written word often commands me to share what I have read elsewhere. Thanks to Pauline Lederer (aka Dear Abby), via the Macon Telegraph newspaper's October 2, 1998 issue, I am able to share the poem that follows. It moved me to tears.

Remorse

By Truman P. Reitmeyer, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

A hunter shot at a flock of geese
That flew within his reach.
Two were stopped in their rapid flight
And fell on the sandy beach.
The male bird lay at the water's edge
And just before he died,
He faintly called to his wounded mate
And she dragged herself to his side.
She bent her head and crooned to him
In a way distressed and wild,
Caressing her one and only mate
As a mother would a child.
Then covering him with her broken wing
And gasping with failing breath,
She laid her head against his breast
A feeble honk — then death.
This story is true though crudely told.
I was the man in this case.
I stood knee-deep in snow and cold
And the hot tears burned my face.
I buried the birds in the sand where they lay
Wrapped in my hunting coat,
And I threw my gun and belt in the bay
When I crossed in the open boat.
Hunters will call me a right poor sport
And scoff at the thing I did.
But that day something broke in my heart,
And shoot again? God forbid!

This column is dedicated to the so-called "Bird Man of Yatala" (Michael Barry Fyfe) of Yatala Prison's high security G-Division, in South Australia. Stay strong, "Bird Man".

[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]

From GLW issue 341