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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