EPITAPH

 


















Epitaph for


The lost poem
Which contained

Everything
And nothing.

Touched everyone, anyone
Who desired

The mystery of mysteries
Words of words, which brought forth

Language

Both blessed & cursed us
Married us, buried us and parted

The heavens and the
Deep blue seas


Made Houdini disappear
And broke the sole of
Khrushchev’s soul

Shot Kennedy
And then shot a rocket

To the moon


Sold us, indiscriminate
Commanded us to war and glory
And holocaust – unimagined imagination
The scavengers & architects, history
Fighting for space apocalyptic
Down on Wall Street and in the Silicone Valley


Stages of poetry and stages
Of time living, breathing & dying
On the battlefields

Of life.

The Poem,

Too early

Too late

Too bad

The lost poem
Which contained
Nothing and everything
Everything and nothing

At all.


You left it home on the
Kitchen table where your children
Drew on it
In crayon

It is just as well.

___________________

R.M. ENGELHARDT, 
FROM “THE RESURRECTION WALTZ” 2013