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richcmather

Zechariah

By Richard Mather

The brickwork is broken,

Gardens are in disarray,

The iron gates swing free from their hinges,

Rain sings in the gutters

& the earth beneath my feet is possessed by evil spirits.

How the giants have fallen!

How the angels have vanished!

Gone are the generations that once stood their ground

(Bright were their faces;

Noisy was their talk with childish laughter).

War, plague, flood and drought have left their marks

On the foreheads of the dead

Who congregate in the valley of darknesses.

Only the Arabs come and go like ravens,

Bringing bread and flesh in the evenings.

Earth is bereaved of love

& grows desolate.

Where are the silver birds,

The shining animals?

As a priest without a shrine I no longer seek

Favour from heaven.

What has caused Adoshem

To remove his Spirit and go into exile?

No answer comes.

It is as if

Horse and rider never existed,

As if sea and shore never closed

Over our enemies.

Sorrows stir in the rising heat of the day.

The iron core is broken

& the sky bleached

White is unhinged from the sea’s horizon

& rots in the image of the beached

Leviathan.

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