Sitting among winter’s ash
Black evaporated into sky
A grey Central Park bench
Welcomes a woman’s sighs

Trees burnt in bitter breath
Black birds falling in limbs
The emptiness of mourning
A lady in red, pale and thin

Red lips painted in fashion
A black hat with a red rose
Black hair rippling in wind
Flowing red, lace and bows

A vision of music in motion
Scarlet rosary beads of light
Pools of dark eyes weeping
Angel of Wall Street’s plight

A Madonna of the forgotten
Children of a nation’s greed
The emptiness of mourning
Offering her prayers, seeds

Seeds of the broken hearted
The unemployed, each child
Sowing for the discontented
The innocence, Earth defiled

Memories of unknown heroes
Sepia clouds of all that’s lost
Prayers for the broken people
Freedom’s illusion at any cost

A rose of Central Park praying
She sits in our silence so grave
Planting what God's love bears
Home for the free and the brave

Go in peace into her mourning
There is no shame in God’s grace
Every man, woman, and child run
To find calm in Mother’s embrace

Sitting among winter’s ash
Black evaporated into sky
A grey Central Park bench
Welcomes a woman’s sighs

Kathy Paysen 2012