2004-09-24 - 7:54 p.m.
On the centennial of Pablo Nerudas birth
a few days after the Pinochet regime killed Salvador
Allende, Neruda died. they say he died of a broken
heart.
I know the going but what of the return
A branch droops, heavy with peaches
the size of mangos and the color of fall amber
thick as plump breasts
I watch the peach fall
And the branch crick crack
the squish a peach makes against the wet earth
The sound is distinctive as early morning
But what of the return
The remaking of fallen
What does that sound like?
peach of return against gravity to the lonely
branch
the branch sealed uncracked again
what does that look like?
The blood has seeped into the damp soil
In Chile
In Nicaragua
In Iraq
In NY
In Afghanistan
The flesh devoured by the wind
The dying was angry
Insipid and violent
Bullets and bombs
bodies
Bitter as burnt black coffee
Who shall return?
And how softly
While we wait
Will the sound be subtle as lovers holding hands
The once mourners are starting to be mourned
What of the return?
