27 January 2013

Forgiveness


A curtain corner raised,
I witnessed Jews,
enlightened since their passage
through the Auschwitz ovens,
rescuing former camp guards
from the stinking pits
remorse had dug for them.

I bring it to your attention
you bombers, you famine makers,
you adjusters of populations.
These children you kill
might learn, by this light,
a love which, brought to bear,
could drive you screaming mad.

20 January 2013

Flu

The small sad noise within my bed, I found,
Was breath exhaled against the chest's congestion,
Like a baby wailing in the distant darkness;
Baby-wail among the great cetaceans
Playing, flying, gliding the Arctic deeps,
Laying the grids of their geographies,
Suckling their calves upon the wing, and singing.

Some of the predators above, who probe
The heaving waters with their tracking ears,
Think it a sad song. They should know, who are
Of the virus that has made this teardrop earth
The saddest jewel in the galaxy.

And I, back to my sullen sheets, back to
The feral, viral homunculus fastened,
Battening on my back,
And the baby weeping in the my breast.