To Iraq
I think of you most often at night
when the ground is silent
I think of you when darkness invades
when i can’t roll over
without waking my own subconscious
there is an empty vase on the dresser
that makes a strange reflection in the dark
I wonder if it is Baghdad, telling me
it is trying to live
I wonder if it is another ending
I cannot see
I feel your wounds open on my skin
and press to close them
but the gauze falls away
like peace
there is a small light across the street
that calls to me
begging to know why I can fall sleep
but you cannot
why the ceilings of a mosque
have crumbled again
It is eleven p.m.
and all I see in the dark
Is the hand of a small boy
reaching
reaching out
pulling himself from the rubble
but I cannot grab the hand
for it is the shape of a country
and each finger is broken
I find small sticks, frantically glue them together
but am told in ancient languages,
there is no splint for remorse
I cannot find a way to
mend the quilts
of each torn twilight
I keep going back
each night
waking in the rubble
Of crushed stone
I want to say I’m sorry
but your sons and daughters are gone
and even the mosque has not stopped weeping
as the night coagulates
I keep remembering a prayer
I was taught in Sunday school
I keep saying it,
To myself
Even though I know the sky
Cannot hear it
Kyrie, eleison
Lord Have Mercy on Us
Kyrie elison
when I butter my toast in the morning
Kyrie, eleison
when I see the same boy’s hand
who cannot find even bread or atonement
Kyrie, eleison
for the sun
who will someday swallow this earth
and the ground
who will no longer
be silenced
Connie Post served as Poet Laureate of Livermore, California from 2005 – 2009. Her work has appeared in Calyx, Kalliope, Cold Mountain Review, Blue Fifth Review, Chiron Review, Crab Creek Review, Comstock Review, DMQ Review, Dogwood, Main Street Rag, The Great American Poetry Show, Slipstream, The Pedestal Magazine, RiverSedge, Karamu, The Toronto Quarterly and the Premier issue of Adanna. She was the winner of the 2009 Caesura Poetry Award from Poetry Center of San Jose.
I think of you most often at night
when the ground is silent
I think of you when darkness invades
when i can’t roll over
without waking my own subconscious
there is an empty vase on the dresser
that makes a strange reflection in the dark
I wonder if it is Baghdad, telling me
it is trying to live
I wonder if it is another ending
I cannot see
I feel your wounds open on my skin
and press to close them
but the gauze falls away
like peace
there is a small light across the street
that calls to me
begging to know why I can fall sleep
but you cannot
why the ceilings of a mosque
have crumbled again
It is eleven p.m.
and all I see in the dark
Is the hand of a small boy
reaching
reaching out
pulling himself from the rubble
but I cannot grab the hand
for it is the shape of a country
and each finger is broken
I find small sticks, frantically glue them together
but am told in ancient languages,
there is no splint for remorse
I cannot find a way to
mend the quilts
of each torn twilight
I keep going back
each night
waking in the rubble
Of crushed stone
I want to say I’m sorry
but your sons and daughters are gone
and even the mosque has not stopped weeping
as the night coagulates
I keep remembering a prayer
I was taught in Sunday school
I keep saying it,
To myself
Even though I know the sky
Cannot hear it
Kyrie, eleison
Lord Have Mercy on Us
Kyrie elison
when I butter my toast in the morning
Kyrie, eleison
when I see the same boy’s hand
who cannot find even bread or atonement
Kyrie, eleison
for the sun
who will someday swallow this earth
and the ground
who will no longer
be silenced
Connie Post served as Poet Laureate of Livermore, California from 2005 – 2009. Her work has appeared in Calyx, Kalliope, Cold Mountain Review, Blue Fifth Review, Chiron Review, Crab Creek Review, Comstock Review, DMQ Review, Dogwood, Main Street Rag, The Great American Poetry Show, Slipstream, The Pedestal Magazine, RiverSedge, Karamu, The Toronto Quarterly and the Premier issue of Adanna. She was the winner of the 2009 Caesura Poetry Award from Poetry Center of San Jose.