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When the dead rise
There has usually
been a flood.
When the heavens quake
There was often
a flash before.
When a star falls
It was usually
not a star
But a piece of ice –
burning in a distant,
silent roar.
When locusts swarm
in a shell-clacking
wave of wings
It is usually because
they need food,
as locusts do.
Just as these horsemen,
Riding their pike-
man's nature,
Scream up fire and brim-
stone when smoke
forestalls the blue.
There is nothing too strange
about a woman
clothed in sun
(second woe) Or – who once
seemed an angel – then
reaping the earth
(third woe) or these sores,
or these blooded seas
or scorched ground
(seven bowls): We are all
fated there by our
raging birth.
Too, there is nothing strange
about a river
and a tree
That come forth to heal –
or at least clean
the scarring
Far enough for the young
to believe that curse
is ending,
Enough – sometimes – for
the old, too, to feel their
dead hopes jarring.
*Pikeman (in the game of chess, the pawns' seemingly odd movement – traveling only forward, but attacking only diagonally – is actually based on the old battlefield role {before guns} of pikemen, who carried large shields and spears {pikes} and charged forth as the front lines of combat. But, due to their shields, they could only attack to one side or the other as they ran forward. Forward blindly as the king commands, killing sideways those things that spill around your shield. To accept that horrid role, or to assign that horrid role, takes a man's nature.)
ReplyDeleteI think that the apocalyptic and biblical imagery are very interesting and can illustrate the destructive and “scarring” emotional factor of love. The imagery of locusts and falling stars makes it seem as if the world is ending with the loss of love or a lover. I also think that this apocalyptic imagery illuminates the melancholy of lost love through the tone of bitterness it presents. “When a star falls/ It was usually/ not a star/But a piece of ice—” shows the fantastical, fairy tale expectations of falling stars and making wishes upon them, and the contrasting reality, which is that it is not a star “But a piece of ice—”, a comet. In my perspective this displays that the speaker cannot wish for the imaginary, which is regaining love with a past lover, because of the harsh and bitter reality that the relationship has ended, shown through the bitter and realistic description of the comet.
ReplyDeleteI meant this as a poem about the promise of rebirth and continuity in even the most violent and abysmal acts of decay and destruction.
DeleteBut I guess that's why young people are so romantically encouraging: for their ability to make almost ANYthing be about love. ;)