Ted Kennedy

Death has taken you
You who survived the horror of drowning
survived your high minded brothers
Noblesse Oblige
The knights of Camelot
Camelot as Jacqueline put it
Well

More than survived
You changed the nation
You enacted the dreams of your noble brothers
You turned wealth and privilege into
Work
For the poor the disenfranchised the victims of
Bigotry

From the day my father amazingly voted for
John F. Kennedy for President
To the day in my high school Latin class
When we heard murder
To the day brother Robert Kennedy was shot down
In the height of his love for and by so many
People

From those days to this
As I have learned to admire your commitment
To me as a gay man in the South
To the cause of health for every citizen
Even as death by cancer took you
You have been the ideal the good American
Statesman


Jack Miller, 8-28-'09