“Hello dad, I said- His hands cold & yellow as stained teeth”
“Hi, he said. That sharp white bone of sound. The last he’d utter
~ Kharys Ateh Laue
on this earth. Spat out as if it hurt his throat.”
Is it a crime not to cry over deceased bones?
I.
On a Friday night, a man was swallowed by a full moon
& all the shimmering stars – quilted – into coals & tars
emblocked by sight – The always-fire that blows into the cornea
II.
The palms closed into a prayer-door / closed into handshakes/
closed into eyes/ into a silent mourning – because closure
is an opening scab of grief – healed – an unpain kohl – reddish
in the eyeballs that uncries because a corpse did not
III.
I re-read scriptures of Hud – travel over seven bones of Nuh
Says – a messenger – crafted a wooden ark – waited in prayers
of Kun Fa Ya Kun
(a) A bone slipped – hasten to a cliff – drowns him – swallows
the wholeness of earth – as God speaks unto perish – he said –
“No liturgy to rescue liers”
(b) Here, God’s anger is water – water becomes blazen
An upfold that flushes earth sects & he says –
“Believers shall unto rescuity”
IV.
After the invasion, Nuh cried – for a bone / part of his bone/
separated by death – a God’s veil – & so we never question death
Because he who dies never returns – never in a city –
never to answer our questions – never in walking flesh & bones on our land
V.
Imam’s voice was creaking – leaking to tears – an atlas urge – a departure
into the brown stomach
VI.
90% of mouths opened under an oxygen pipe
Never make it home – Yesterday, we were stoneward in
a machine-path-dying invention
Most days i requiem names of those who never came back
to us – The oxygen pipe – an opening to the death’s gate
VI.
He built before he slipped – a God’s palace – In freelance
of tenantship. We felt a bone leaving out his voice. It is always
a crack : part; unmistaken tears – part; a meditation of God –
part; an eulogy of God’s palace here _ a servant’s heaven palace
The empty space – embroided by faith.
