Marla's Beauty

Though you have gone, your beauty will live on
renowned around the world for many years,
soon though our eyes may waken dry at dawn,
still others will see you with newer tears.

At twenty eight you looked almost a kid,
almost as pretty as a Princess Grace,
but that rare beauty rich in what you did
will linger longer than a lovely face.

Your youth spent raising funds with politicians,
the kinds of things your peers would find a bore,
sent you at last abroad on risky missions
to roadside bombs in a most dangerous war.

The rescued children who defined your duty
for all time, Marla, will divine your beauty.

                           -- by Pete Voelz       4/05

(Dedicated to Marla Ruzicka, 28, of Lakeport, Calif.,
who was killed in Iraq on April 16, 2005 by a suicide
bomber while helping children wounded in the war)