Famous Poets and Poems:  Home  |  Poets  |  Poem of the Month  |  Poet of the Month  |  Top 50 Poems  |  Famous Quotes  |  Famous Love Poems

Back to main page Search for:


FamousPoetsAndPoems.com / Poets / Raymond A. Foss / Poems
Biography
Poems
Quotes
Books
Popular Poets
Langston Hughes

Shel Silverstein

Pablo Neruda

Maya Angelou

Edgar Allan Poe

Robert Frost

Emily Dickinson

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

E. E. Cummings

Walt Whitman

William Wordsworth

Allen Ginsberg

Sylvia Plath

Jack Prelutsky

William Butler Yeats

Thomas Hardy

Robert Hayden

Amy Lowell

Oscar Wilde

Theodore Roethke

All Poets  

See also:

Poets by Nationality

African American Poets

Women Poets

Thematic Poems

Thematic Quotes

Contemporary Poets

Nobel Prize Poets

American Poets

English Poets

Raymond A. Foss Poems
Back to Poems Page
Adverse Effect by Raymond A. Foss
A pent-up question,
crushed his swagger,
confidence, bravado,
the friendly banter,
in the cool of reflection,
for a moment, a telling moment,
because she asked the question
none of us can answer,
when a decision of the law,
an interpretation, a position taken
can have catastrophic effect,
permanent, unalterable, death.

She asked if suicide and death
would qualify as an adverse effect,
of the education they offered her?
Would that have been enough,
to tip the scales of their argument?

He paused and so did we, waiting,
for an answer that couldn’t come.
For the arguments of the advocates,
the parsing of the words, of the law,
the parts of the regulations,
are far removed from the stark reality
that she faced. Far removed from
the fear she felt, heard in the asking
of the question to him.

It was a teachable moment;
thank you for the lesson.

July 27, 2007 19:29
View Raymond A. Foss:  Poems | Quotes | Biography | Books

Home   |   About Project   |   Privacy Policy   |   Copyright Notice   |   Links   |   Link to Us   |   Tell a Friend   |   Contact Us
Copyright © 2006 - 2010 Famous Poets And Poems . com. All Rights Reserved.
The Poems and Quotes on this site are the property of their respective authors. All information has been
reproduced here for educational and informational purposes.