THERE AND HERE

Abstract

Who are you,there,in the old forgotten land,still standing,still free,who everybody saidwould soon have to kneel?Yet there you are,holding,in blasted orchards,poisoned fields,and cities crushed to dust,holding.For behind the reawakened hordecomes a new harvest of sorrow,mangled neighbors,women, lately mute and flinching,children, vanished,come the butchering squads,and the blood-stained cellars,scratched walls, discarded tools,where someone tore the villagers apart,come torched libraries,and the long smothering.So once againtoilingin shattered woods,you meetthe heaving tides,and the flotsam thereafter,just beyond reach,crumpled brothersebbing fastin mud,in fire and rubble,captivessilencedby the taunting, savage blade,brothers in freedom,in daringand torment.Oh, what will you have becomeif you survivethis much witnessing?Who will you be when you walk home,once wrenched free,to the startling sweetness of apples,to tender hugsand public acclaim?And here we areon our comfortable couch,watching in disbeliefthe futureset ablaze,tumblinginto grief and fury.We remember now.We remember.Bewildered to draw strength,and sudden clarity,from your unfathomable bravery,and, yes,stoic grace,we recognize it now,the swaggering Empire,red claws and venom,under its golden cloak.We knowits history of lies,forgeries and slanders,its exultant cruelty,its cynical rebukes,yet we walk unsteadyin thiswasteland of malice.Here,we are fighting swarmsof giddy trolls, whores and hirelings,just to keep truth aliveagainst the hypnotic void,the encroaching tyranny.Just to keep faith with you,just to deserve your sacrifice.What will become of you if we fail?If we betray?What will become of usif you fall? May 2023I am deeply grateful to Cynthia Hogue for her keen reading of an earlier version of this poem, and for her generous feedback and encouragement which allowed me to get to this one.