Day 490: Remembering JFK

'If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a better place to in which to live.' - JKF, Address Harvard 1956 

Today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of JFK. And by chance, I came across this poem yesterday that mentions it. It illustrates simply how an extraordinary man can touch an ordinary life. 

Leo Minor (from The Whole of the Sky) - Simon Armitage

When pictures came through
of the world's first authentically green cat,
I was out of touch, watching
in black and white on a rented set.

I thought of my mother at home
the day Kennedy was shot,
in rubber gloves, crying real tears
into the washing-up.