The Uniform

Staring out the window
I don't even see that the sun is shining
Or that birds are singing in lively chorus
Flitting about from tree to tree
Directly in my line of vision,
Heralding in a new day with such vigour
It belies the gloom that hangs heavy
Around my shoulders, like a thick wool cloak
Wetted down with too many memories.

Instead, I see faces pass before my eyes
Swimming through the fog,
Their eyes pleading with me for help
When there is no help I can offer.

I arrived too late.

Last week's 7 pm. screams of the baby
Securely strapped in his seat,
Miraculously safe,
His tearstained face haunts me
Alongside the lifeless one of his mother
In the front seat of the mangled wreck
That bore little resemblance
To the car she set out in earlier;

I arrived too late to stop the drunk driver
Before he could take a life far too young and needed
And leave a motherless child in his wake.

Saturday's midnight sobs of the mother
Who could not comprehend why
Her son will never come home again,
And the boy's grey and ghostly one
Laying on the floor
With enough drugs in his system
To drop an elephant in its tracks

I arrived too late to stop the pusher
Before he could sell death to one so full of life
And leave a childless mother in his wake.

Wednesday's 6 a.m. shocked stare of the wife
Eyes hollow and dazed,
Faced with an uncertain future,
And the fear-glazed expression on the face
Of the father of her children
Laying in a pool of blood in a back alley
For no other reason than he went to work early.

I arrived too late to stop the thief
Before he came face to face with an innocent man
In the right place at the wrong time.

My head in my hands I try to shake off the faces
But they keep swimming,
Crying out for me to do something,
Anything,
To change fate
Before they drown.

The sun begins to penetrate the fog of my mind
As new faces swim past.
Sunday evening's wide-eyed little girl, 
Lost for over a day, 
Huddled wet and cold under branches of a tree
Arms reaching up to me in the pouring rain
Clinging to life itself, around my neck
As I carried her to hopeful arms, 
And the joyful face of a mother 
Who's whole live has been returned to her. 

I arrived just in time
To change fate
For a little girl lost. 

I look out the window, 
Birds chase each other into the day 
And I remind myself that 
Under my uniform I'm still just human. 
The faces will always be there, 
They have become a part of me; 
I can't always make it on time 
but there will be many times I do 
and those are the times I hold onto, 
The times that will keep me afloat. 



Janet Reid
august 2008


*in honour of police officers everywhere*





Awarded by Poetic Constellations ~ Donna






Awarded by Poetic Constellations ~ Sharon