The Evidence of Things Unsaid
The dead are lined up all the way along the coast
ready to be buried.
This country has been torn apart,
there are no remains left to gather up or identify.
The dead are lined up all the way along the roads
ready to be found.
This city is empty, everyone has fled,
there is no reason for anyone who is not mad to stay.
The dead are lined up everywhere in our imagination
although they don’t exist.
This country’s rulers declared
that they would never murder or harm the innocent, yet
the dead are lined up all the way into the future.
They will never be buried.
This world knows the truth
but our reports fall on deaf ears. We are all guilty now.
Temporary Accommodation
There are no bodies left to bury or cremate.
Everyone we know has been taken away.
The dead should be allowed to be dead
so that the living can watch and learn,
understand the strange language of life.
The tombs of the saints are in disrepair,
angels and crosses cracked and stained.
There is no honour or redemption to be had.
We have abaonded those who have already
gone ahead and entered the crypt.
We cannot excavate our own remains.
The world is only a place to live,
not somewhere you would want to stay.
Death
Death as ancestor
Death as stranger
Death as future
Death as partner
Death as lover
Death as friend
Ivan Weiss
Illustration Nick Victor
Very happy to have found this site. And read these poems by Ivan Weiss. Glad to see Nick Victor’s illustrations – I still have a painting by Nick, from long ago.
Comment by john fullerton on 28 January, 2016 at 4:35 pm