The Eternal Flame
© R. Malcolm Brown, Jr.

Somber, silent, sad

As I watched, one departed

Eulogy, pain, end

Jacqueline, admired

By all people of this land

Remembrance and hate

The date JFK

Left the confines of this earth

Senseless, helplessness

Yet through the grim pain

I felt as bad memories

Jacqueline, at peace

Jacqueline, at rest

Beside her husband she loved

Beside her children

May you rest in peace

Dearest Jacqueline

May you rest in peace

May 23, 1994

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This poem came at the moment of watching on television, the early morning events of Jacqueline Kennedy's funeral in New York City on May 23, 1994. Memories flooded into the mind as recollections of Jackie Kennedy on that fateful day, November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Ironically, the President was to have come to Austin that afternoon for a gala fund-raising affair, and many Austinites already were lining Congress Avenue waiting to see the President when they learned of this tragedy.