byEdgar Gabriel Silex
after seeing on TV a massacred
couple holding hands and blue
bloated bodies tumbling down
gorgeous waterfalls
- a day like a blue god
whose invisible hand
lifts our kites my son
and I watch in awe
a sudden shower storm
of falling pink petals
butterflying here and there
the earth will incarnate
their shadows will rise
from the cinerous ground
we all become the dark
bodies who lie on the grass
who might've been lovers
strangers or the hacked
parents of new orphans
saved by the hand of kindness
in the choas of war
and exodus slaughters
escape in suffering
and redemption
the two bodies lie
arms outstretched
you can clearly see
how they struggled
to hold each other's
hands as all humans wish
at their moment of dying
we find a broken oriole
who while escaping crows
crashed against our house
its charcoal and vermilion body
like a flame on the ground
covered by ants we too take sone
feathers to fan our prayers
and leave the body to be
washed by the sanguineous
river of ants
From Acts of Love by Edgar Gabriel Silex,
Curbstone Press. © 2004 Edgar Gabriel Silex