Poem : "Deep horizon"

by Gary Lindorff

Looking out across the gulf
Of our mistakes, accidents and crimes
I see a murky horizon
Blurred by the brine of a tear
That is taking its time
Gaining enough weight
To trail down my cheek.
The deep horizon of this grief
Is far deeper than I thought.
Was I foolish to come ?
Didn't I know that any space so hollowed
And left empty,
Even for an instant,
Fills with the tears of those
Who wept before us ?
Such a weight, such a gulf,
Such a deep horizon.
Even the crabs, the flattest of nations,
Cannot squeeze beneath
This mile-deep grief.
Fish roast in the sun
Like blackened shavings
Of silver and copper ;
In solidarity,
I mimic their down-turned mouths.

. . . Sickened by the smell of the air we have made . . .

I come here to wade knee deep
Into this ruined place
And try to feel what we've done,
But I can't even properly ask
A dead pelican for forgiveness :

But if our madness is our refusal to learn
From your sacrifice
Then our madness is our tomorrow.

What if we can't make it better
Unless we go away ?

. . . As you return to what you were
Before we called you "pelican",
Let us then return to what we were
Before we named you !
What was that ?
What were we anyway,
Before we named ourselves "chosen" ?