Savages
(April 2011)
By Caridad Svich
Salvage all,
Save this I keep for you –
Bitter worn
empty,
yet full of longing
(For another life led
In mystery).
Savage this,
I made for you,
For it will not be here
Much longer.
Torn in pieces long,
In remnants passed
From one hand to another
Liquid, porous –
It awakens every ounce of desire
In my palm.
How could I know you’d leave this
Unknown, strange sensation
Of melancholy?
Rooted in despair
Yet exhilarated
By it,
I’m anxious to relive
Some aspect of damage,
That I never knew
I craved.
It was this you opened
In my consciousness:
Radiant light
Streaming through the eye,
Beam of desire pulsing
Through some vague memory
Once erased from my mind –
Blurry substance of fire
Burn of angels lost
In their own reverie,
What solid thing holds us to earth
And jettisons hope
Of the everlasting fear of loss?
I will learn what it is to let go
Of everything
And in so doing
Rob you
Of your longed-for destiny.
It is here
We make ourselves.
In this light
Burnished
Replicated by a thousand desires
Shaped by destinies
Of those bereft
Of their citizenry.
Damascus ancient
Weaves dark spells
Of enchantment over the land.
A blue wall
A cigarette in the mouth
A scarf on your head
And tired hands rest
Along a wall
And think about a gun once held.
Eyes once witnessed in agony:
Another life.
Another time;
Not me,
Not now,
In end days.
Soon another will be mourned
Along the road.
No words anymore
But smoke,
A look at the sun,
And a cradling of a forgotten gun.
Memories of battles waged –
Old songs of glories and praise.
Hymns for those who have shed blood,
Forgotten names who’ve left their mark
Upon the land.
Pity them, I say
But pity too the sun burnt who stand
Held in fear
Awakened eternally by disparities
Leveled by civilization
Sorry earth,
Forgive us all our trespasses
And when we blight your stones,
And rock dirt blooms,
Be kind.