SONG OF REMEMBRANCE
Matthew
Shenoda
If
unshackling were a song
IÕd
slide my palm on skin
And
watch it trail to air
If
unshackling were a song
Forgive my days of fullness
In this land of filch, let my wares be witness
Sokar, you who bless these hands with flourish
As my heart is weighed against a feather
Forgive my days of fullness
The
bones of possibility, laid to rest
Stratum,
the rootÕs architecture
My
map floats in an ocean sweep
And
what do we exhume from this great distance?
The
bones of possibility, laid to rest
Every time I look to this sea
I am reminded of my own humanity
Every time I shuffle my step
I recall everything that is left
Intrinsic
her name
Buried
dead her call
Antiquity,
enigmatic wonder
History
a chafe of surface and burn
Cracked
light into woven earth
Who desiccated
night?
In the nation of wont
Shading our day from the pelagic road
Stripped the bark of verdure from the day
My
body has absorbed this poison
Not like the carcinogens of the world
Flanked by an iridescence
Fraught
by the way of home
My body has absorbed this poison
If cartography were a song
Would she dot her notes on the river bottom?
Would she croon her maps on a mountain ridge?
Would her cadence lead us home?
If cartography were a song
IÕll
tell a story of life and death
Carve
the mask of dignity
Make
a place for fire
IÕll
tell a story of life and death
Nefer is the land
Stolen in her grace
How she seeps from the
wisdom of her own
Made part by the legacy of
hunger
The story of wingless
birds
Free like the facilities of Africa
The
taking of an anomaly
The
mapping of rout
Free like the facilities of Africa
Song is a harmony, takes away the road
Disappear, disappear the victimÕs map
Before he come undone
One can never tell of wisdomÕs knot
Song is a harmony, takes away the road
How
the soul does pretend
Refuge
in the shade of acacia
Stolen
on the land of sand
Loose
is the root in decadence
How
the soul does pretend
From under this canopy of thirst
Release shall come
This has been the story of sovereignty
This has been the story of hope
Begin
Believing
Shift
your gaze beyond
Like
the order of a midnight office
Say
loudly everything that need be said
Train
your gate to walk the dark
If every wanderer touched the sky
Was made full by SahÕs direction
Spoken for in another language
Premonition would be our freedom
In
the hail of lead fire
We
were made to contemplate our veins
Understand
the vestiture of desire
Cloaked
in an impeding life
In
the hail of lead fire
From the sinister gaze of the Atlantic
Its mouth curling with foam
Swept between a desolation
I found my way home
From the sinister gaze of the Atlantic
Whose
skin we remember
Borrowed
from the stitching of our past
She
carried on this wanting
Whose
skin we remember
Anticipation
A
new land, like sea
Vast
like an upward spire, eroding
The
pain in your belly, new inertia
And
the yearning to forget
Oh son of David
Who croons like silk
And navigates by wander song
Oh son of David
When you first arrive
Stolen is your heart
A memory that locks the past
It is as if no other song had been sung
When you first arrive
If
splendid were a tale you tell
YouÕd
speak the past as if it were a dream
YouÕd
praise the pain as if it hadnÕt pierced
YouÕd
gather your new neighbors and perjure all the night
If
splendid were a tale you tell
And all who came before you
But soon theyÕd say, but soon
Lackluster in their eyes
Falter in their step
And
you rise this way
Greet
the morning haze
Blinded
by waning recollection
Frightened
by the possibilities
Of
distance being your home
Oh how we lived too well
Replete with sorrow
I sing the song of empty
Drive the memory from my crown
Heal the land
Like the song of my lungs
Frozen in a space of trace
Captured by a human collapsar
Heal the land
The Acmeists of tomorrow
Must belong beyond this place
Tilling in a new direction
Speaking in a blessed tongue
The Acmeists of tomorrow
The
clouds bore heavy rain
A
sign of something somewhere
Brazen
in its pronouncement
The
clouds bore heavy rain
As the plane began
Lifting from its perch
He peered from the window to the land below
Oh, how he longed so quietly to jump
Root himself to vanished earth