As Notre Dame Burns . . .
I am cleaning house
hoisting a mighty brass lamp
to sweep away
the accumulated dust
of eons . . .
A stupefying crash
the end of something.
The lamp’s base has rotted, fallen out
lies in
scattered fragments
humpty dumpty
This massive lamp was
a lighthouse
guiding us to safety
a thousand years of Western civilization
crashing down
burning up
the center cannot hold
vast chunks of glacier
calving off
England, Hungary, Turkey
spinning apart
the new Europe
the new world order
the ancient civilization
the global Empire
liberal democracy
neoliberalism
rot
fire
Our house a rock
sheltering our tiny family
on a colossal foundation
built in 1952
when gleaming rows of proud houses sprouted
on acres of cement
from the ashes of war
build anew
. . .
Toss away
this bronze lamp
among the ephemera
of a new world order
built on commerce
a foundation of sand
We order anew
Amazon Prime
dealer
for a billion junkies
flotsam from China’s million factories
a foundation of
cheap labor
Our house, our marriage
unshakeable foundation
in Rockville, a rock
impervious (for now)
to flooding, landslides, heat waves,
hurricanes, tornados, malaria, Lyme disease, measles, fear-mongering, racism, anti-Semitism,
Islamophobia, shootings, bombings, torture, slaughter
Rockville, all American town
sanctuary city of a hundred thousand migrants
Hondurans, Guatemalans
Ethiopians, Iranians
Koreans, Chinese, Indians
Sri Lankans
refugees
all-
Americans in a flash
The smoky remains of the ancient cathedral
wavering yet proud
an ancient skeleton
Somehow, a miracle
The crown of thorns
has survived the blaze
now each of us must wear it.
--Ethan Goffman
this poem is soon to appear in Madness Muse
No comments:
Post a Comment