“70”

When I say I have reached “Three score and ten,”

most folks today do not recall the phrase-

is from the Bible.  They just think of when-

“Four score and seven,” Lincoln said, in days-

of war.

                          At six-foot-eight I was too tall

for drafting to the war in Viet Nam.

My college friends were sent to fight and fall.

I went to Seminary–just a lamb

far from the wolves, from death, from…  (I almost

mis-wrote “…from Agent Orange”–for which no cure

exists–or rhyme.)

                                   I wish that I could boast

my years were spent in waging peace, in pure

activities alone:  but many a day  

I failed.  (It is for mercy that I pray.)

Steve Shoemaker at historic pulpit of Sheldon Jackson in CO.

– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, December 19, 2012