Like Any Messiah Taken Unaware by Death

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Like any Messiah taken unaware by death

I saw my father                he was nodding to the palms, surrendered

To his sweet sad songs, was greeting

Happily the doves which settled on his shoulder

Alone     no shadow to soften his loneliness 

Alone the clouds    were praying to him

And I was calling    Father! Death is colder than a cup of water on my body, and

Fonder to me than sand

Father    the water surrounds me with longing and there is no time to shame the night 

With light, and melancholy with memories

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My father, answering

What is gone     is gone

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Prepare your exiles for the hard years, turn absence 

Into silver ribbons through your hair

Push your hands into the pockets of your shirt

Out comes your country 

Brimming ashes, fragment-crammed

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Father     the directions have exhausted me

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My father, saying  

What is gone     is gone

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Distance has left me limp, father

Hunger is complete with me

And I am full with all the countries that threw me 

A babe into the river

This longing is no great thing to me

Earth switched on me, the skies

Are not the skies

No light to guard me     for distance betrays

No wind to bear me    for the clouds they age

Between my shadow and me / the butterflies    

Enchanted by the poems and the songs

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My father, saying  

What is gone     is gone

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Neither will the butterflies restore childhood to the water

Nor mother tongue loan you its ABC names

Nor dream pack your soul with clouds    Nor poetry, nor hopes

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Like any Messiah taken unaware by death         My father

It was not a dream I saw, it was 

Reading the secret of drought on the palms

It was too much for poetry          but no great thing to death

I was calling to him: Father of wind

Father of water

Father of night

Father of hunger

                                      Father of death

                 Father of death

Father of death 

Surrendered to his sad yearning songs

Greeting the doves 

Which settled on his shoulders

Like any Messiah taken unaware by death

My father, saying

Be not afraid. Of mortal flesh is Man

Of mortal flesh is every son

Of Adam

What is gone     is gone