WHEN SAMANTHA LEFT
for Samantha Smith
child peace envoy
1972-1985
When Samantha left the blind rains
were falling somewhere,
the unhearing falcon
tangent to hurricane’s eye and lost.
A girl and her father fell from the sky.
It was an important failure, another
of many come from that bad world
the radios and televisions speak of,
somewhat different because she was small
and had helped us hope a little
when we thought it counted.
But whatever was said
as cameras panned the crash site
we knew she had stopped like a countdown
while we were preparing suppers or