The Time of the Holocaust

(after The Road by Cormac McCarthy)




for dulce cantos, dj

by peter la. julian


go to another country
where the moon is a meandering river
the sun a flight of birds in a sky of utmost blue
it is a season when papayas are in bloom
but the tree is a barren woman in the spring
of her life--gone are the stars in her eyes.
it is a season of harvest, but the farmer, crying
in the shed, is at rest--his work animal
has long been buried.
an old man is walking on the beach
strewn with ashes and dead fish.
it is sunset, but the voices of urchins are muffled
the landscape is bereft of sound and life.
it was a year without the typhoons and the rains
and death is alive in the silence where once
stood the green forest.
go to another country
where the sun rises in the west
and the moon weeps at sunrise.

and we? we shall search the ruined cathedrals
comb the mountain city that perished in flames
and finding none, we shall descend to the grand
canyons of memories.