The Abyss

 

 

The women are wailing,

sinking are the ships.

In a thousand lifetimes

not a single kiss.

 

   ***

 

Evenings in the tavern

sipping infant blood;

promises forgotten,

loyalties long dead.

 

Yet, the trip continues

--no one takes the blame--

ending where we started:

a desert of shame.

 

   ***

 

Passing through the rainbow

we captured the gold;

ambushed on the way home,

we were raped and sold!

 

Useless in the vineyard,

hesitant and frail,

the outspoken slave boy

soon ends up in jail.

 

In a cell with Joseph

there’s no dream to tell.

Neither can he save me,

nor be saved himself.

 

   ***

 

Rotting in the dungeons,

centuries of drought,

my beast fled and left me

on the plains of doubt.

 

With no trace behind me,

there’s no proof I’ve lived.

No one ever loved me.

I have never loved.

 

Not a word for ages,

I forgot my name.

Bad days are a nightmare;

good days, just the same.

 

Life is passing by me,

in my fear I dwell,

between burning oceans,

and a freezing hell.

 

   ***

 

Pleading from the lifeboat

to the gods of pain,

eaten by the sea salt,

beaten by the rain.

 

Can I gather raindrops

in a paper bag?

Or capture the sunlight

in a shredded rag?

 

Gates that can’t be opened,

a wall within a wall.

Hostages of hatred

have no hope at all!

 

   ***

 

From an ancient fable

screams the village fool:

“If you lose compassion,

violence must rule.”

 

--

Ehab Lotayef

Montreal, September 11th, 2002