words

regeneration through isolation absolute,
great holes in the sky bled sunshine down
on the streets and in your eyes until
you could see nothing but the breath of god.

they fled from meaning like sin from priests,
what some call cowardice we knew to be power
and we cradled it in our arms like a newborn
with great care and slight apprehension.

have mercy, they cried, have mercy on us all,
and you knew when we were the only ones left to pray
that still our chances of being heard were thin,
we who bore the burden of seeing the last days
of the earth come slowly to an end.

we lumbered through the dead cities and
listened to the lonely streets as they stretched
up at our feet in fear we may again retreat,
each step a kiss goodbye to the memory of
that place, the people and the sounds and the
ghosts of those which came before.

we swam the rim of the world and the way
and beckoned the stars to take us home,
but in the end we could not die, and we had
that power, and still we chose to live alone
among the fading waters and the falling trees,
free of philosophy that crumbled when the
sun refused to climb back up into the clouds,
free to live forever in the endless shade.

-S.C. Martinez