“Within” acrylic on canvas farida haque

A SONG FOR THE END OF THE EARTH

~ a poemsongdirge for these our times ~

The mirror was silent

Her silence lay shattered

Dark corners spoke auguries of pain

Of days of dread, dead ahead,

And endless nights insane.

A woman, a waif, a saint a whore,

Call her what you will

Though she closed her ears and eyes as well,

Her heart yearned far

A mossy-groined hill.

Echoed and echoes and echoes of regrets

Were all that remained of her mind.

And hope a shadow

You’d smell in a hall

And slowly leave behind.

The sun she had loved

Wind, moon and stars

Rain tadpoles on window panes

Cool ferns and clouds and God and man

And all that in between came.

But all that had swirled

Down the river of life and

Drowned in dark waters one day

When she stood in the wind of an aftermath

And saw how men betray