A REMINDER

by

Martin Higgins

I saw you!  Standing on the end of the pier,

Staring at the violence of the sun,

Dazzled and shot-through with Zazen,

Life-drunk and longing,

For a future you cannot survive.

I saw you!  Pulling lifeless bodies from mangled steel,

Breathing hope into hollow mouths,

Ash blue lips and eyes blank as potter clay,

Weeping as they lived, or died,

Overcome with your selfless sense of Self.

It was you!  And you!

Who ran screaming through blood-spattered halls,

Deafened by incendiary explosions,

That walked through your village,

Plumes of purifying pitch Hellfire,

Making senseless memories of your world.

Wasn't it you?  It was!  All of you!

Standing lock-armed and resolute,

When dry Summer ate up your late corn and

Tiny howling skeletons, swaddled in Mother black shawl shrouds

Fell onto the cobbles dull skull thud

As you sank, gut-shot and helpless in the Plaza de la Revolucion?

And, yes! It was ME! Who broke my word, my promise.

Breached my covenant and left you to die,

Never returned with help and tried to forget your name,

Prayed for gray felt amnesia to swallow you whole, everyone,

Engulf you all and, in so doing, bind up my consummate shame!

But now, here you are - each one of you

Filling my burning eyes and roaring ears

With seething hatred and infinite compassion,

Withering pain and unwarranted hope,

Plummeting sadness and the merciful grace of forgiveness,

Reminding me, shouting at me, shrieking as one!

LEARN TO FORGET!

Copyright ©1998

Martin Higgins

all rights reserved