In the Third Year of the War

Ursula K. Le Guin

I used to stand in this corner window
to wave to my children setting off
down the hill to school with their lunch boxes,
and they’d turn and wave to me.

At Christmas the tree goes in this window,
and all year I keep flowers in it,
close to the glass, so we inside
and people passing by can see them.

Last year I put a Peace sign in the window
with an electric candle behind it
that comes on at twilight. Last month I started
sticking a piece of paper with the number,
the day’s count of the dead, in the window.

Now almost every day I have to change it,
to add one, or four, or seven
to the number of the brave children.

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Source. About the poet. Photo by AnolmalousNYC (flickr).