Geary and Gough — The day of the assassinations, November 27, 1978

by Bill Edmondson

At St. Mary’s of the Assumption
Under infrequent sun
At certain times    on certain days
The shadow of a woman’s breast
Graces the cupola
Although this revelation
Sent newsmen tingling up and down
Small streets    to find an angle
The breast is better seen as maternal

For it has to be as mother
She opens her arms
This long    shocked    afternoon
Mourners flock here to grieve

I’d be with them
If only I believed
Not down at the Castle Club in the Tenderloin
Where three somber shots of Jack Daniels
Line up on the bar
One for a decent mayor
One for a pioneer
One for she who must wear a city’s scar