Still Incomplete

Found Poem #16, Still Incomplete

Being a gay, Jewish,
Nearly deaf
And an otherwise disabled dwarf from Queens
Has its advantages.

And Harry Wieder
Used every one of them.

Mr. Wieder
Who was buried Friday,
After being killed by a taxi
At age 57
Spent most waking hours
Campaigning for:
Gay rights,
Safe public housing,
Health care,
Access for the disabled
And hundreds of local lefty candidates.

What he lacked in height
He would deliver in volume.

He sometimes attended
Seven or eight meetings a day
Even if he snored his way
Through one or two of them.

He was impossible;
He was lovable;
And determined to get the affection
He was due.

The only child of Holocaust survivors,
Mr. Wieder hardly considered
His own situation a hardship.

He never complained, for example,
How difficult it was for him to walk.

But it was.

Which is probably why —
After a Community Board 3 meeting on Sunday night —
He tried to cross Essex Street
In the middle of the block.

The passing cab
Abruptly ended a life
With countless agendas
Still incomplete.

Source: The New York Times. May 1, 2010