What We Will by Mara Lemanis

 

What We Will by Mara Lemanis  

 

What We Will

 

You said it would be all right;

I said Look around you--

look and see what you won’t see,

listen to the lies, bans, howls;

slay the dragon, I said

sow the dragon’s teeth.

That is old work, you said--

Broken teeth, torn flesh.

Then what will be…?

                                                                             You will see, you said.

And your voice folded into whisper

like a tea cosy coddling a secret brew,

spreading a radiant hush

like marigolds nodding

In a dawn-ripe rain—

We will find the peace that

passes understanding, you said,

and your voice flowed out

in a murmuring breeze

across fields, meadows, tundras

through cement-blocked cities, towns

through thick of forests, walls of water

Out to the ravening bile

of rough beasts

with mouths of men;

and your breath spun a silk road

around heads crammed

with curses, lies that

shake the earth, that

dredge ore from mineshafts,

veins rich with venom;

as your breath muffled howls in

tombs sealed with tulle,

as whispers massed

continents of cloud cover,

tongues of layered sound

dense as trumpets at Jericho

crumbling walls of dragon’s teeth,

mounting canyons of coral

to lay islands

floating free, unbanked

past mouths that tear flesh,

Past understanding how

a silk road, unwavering, unwinding

raised an army past shields,

unbrokered,

past understanding

what you said

We willed to be.

                                                                                                                          

                                                                                     Mara Lemanis 

 

Images: 1) Peace Silk Road, 2) Peace Whispers

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