A Song for Steve

 At the end of anguish, when the spell is broken,
And the seas are lifted in the light,
Let us forgive, and be forgiven,
That we may walk, without remembrance,
New paths along the barren shore.

Let us forget the children’s voices,
Behind the shattered gate, where the wind had come,
Cursing the invitation to the light,
Weaving the sixteen-metered song of darkness,
In the ruined cities, where the sun cannot go.

When the miracle at last is come,
Then nameless in the sunlight we will dwell,
In an empty land at the end of time,
Walking the new-grown fields where the locust ran,
Raising new cities in the light.

And in the evening we will know
The faces of the dying children,
In the metaphoric spaces of the heart.
And we will lift them up, that they may go,
On their final journey, into the dark.

1990