This Title Makes No Claim

A captain of industry builds the world's largest skyscraper.
His critics contend he's just a robber baron
creating his own grandiose monument.

Ten men die building it.

A nurse soothes a terminally ill child into falling asleep.
Something is bothering her and she has to look
at the child's medical chart.

She forgot his name.

A student stays after class with his classics professor.
They discuss the universal appeal and today's relevance
of the writers Plutarch, Homer and Ovid.

They speak in Latin.

A cattle king yells into a canyon, "This is my domain!"
The resulting echoes, each resounding quieter than the last,
mark the legacy of his reign.

Soon all is silent again.

A chalk artist draws some of history's greatest masterpieces
on a marble sidewalk for the pleasure
of tourist passersby.

The sky above turns from blue to gray.

A doctor decides to set aside his lucrative practice
and make a difference in a third world country for a year.
He is placed in March of 1994.

Rwanda is his destination.

An ailing father leaves his footprints by the sea's edge.
He smiles ruefully at his son who uses his smaller feet
to save them from the waves.

The boy succeeds for a while.