A REMINDER
Martin Higgins 

I saw you, 
Standing at 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 out of mangled steel, 
Breathing hope into hollow mouths, 
Ash blue lips and eyes - blank as potter’s 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, 
Making senseless memories of your world. 
 
Wasn't it you? All of you! 
Standing lock-armed and resolute" 
When dry Summer ate up your seed 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 Revolucion? 
 
WELL YES! It was ME!, who broke my word, 
Breached my covenant and left you to die, 
Never showed up with help and forgot your name, 
Prayed for gray felt amnesia to swallow you whole, 
Engulf you all and, in so doing, bind up my consummate shame! 
 
But now here you are - every one of you 
Filling my burning eyes and roaring ears 
With infinite compassion and seething hatred, 
Withering pain and unwarranted hope, 
Plummeting sadness and the merciful grace of peace, 
Reminding me, shouting at me, shrieking as one! 
LEARN TO FORGET! 
 
xxx 
 
Copyright ©1998 
Martin Higgins 
all rights reserved