Moments of Heart
by Keith Hearn

A hardened, always-in-control senator
breaks down and cries for real,
not just for TV cameras, at a film of
men skinning live baby seals.

In a convention hall, a governor giving
a crucial speech stops mid-sentence to
gaze outside at the orange-and-crimson
sunset filtering through ancient oaks.

Long after midnight, a corporate executive
lies awake on silk sheets, reading not stock quotes
or plans for million-dollar business deals,
but Rumi poems and words of Martin Luther King.

A general commanding troops in a bitter war
far from home dreams of trading it all for
a few years on a quiet, grassy farm,
growing vegetables, growing old.

Author's Note: My sadness at the insensitivity of many people in positions of power is occasionally lifted when I come across those who show – even if briefly – their gentle, loving side. Although the poem’s incidents are fictitious, I’m sure similar examples exist in the real world.
    Along with poetry, Keith’s other creative interest is digital outdoor photography. He retired in 2007 after a 42-year journalism career as a writer and editor for The Associated Press and state employee labor unions. He lived in California his entire life until retiring and moving to Asheville with his wife, Ellen Beegel.