November 11, 2013

Tending the wounded

On this Veteran's Day, a few lines of Walt Whitman's poem The Wound-Dresser have been going through my head. It's about a Civil War era angel of mercy tending to wounded and dying soldiers and no doubt comes from his personal experience:

Arous'd and angry, I'd thought to beat the alarum, and urge relentless war,
But soon my fingers fail'd me, my face droop'd and I resign'd myself,
To sit by the wounded and soothe them, or silently watch the dead...

Here's the whole thing.

MINIMUM WAGE. Here's a call to raise it. And here's a poll that shows this has public support.

ONE UGLY FISH here.

1 comment:

Elizabeth Gaucher said...

Thank you for this. This is where I was today with the library thing. It is a place, that place where it's not that you don't care, it's that you know you can do nothing but be with the wounded.