"A Poem for the Innocents," by Geoffrey Philp

  
 
 
A Poem For the Innocents

 

A killing moon peeks through leaves

of trumpet trees in full bloom

for Lent, their barks crisscrossed

by wild strokes of a machete

when my son tried to help me weed

our garden, overrun with dandelions,

branches, leaves, a bounty of seed

and thorns, side by side, under clusters

of suns bursting through the branches.

 

Shadows flicker across the wall upstairs,

over Buzz Lightyear's grin, Mr. Potato

Head's sigh, and under a map

dotted with cities that fill his dreams.

 

What promises will I make

when I climb the stairs

before he falls asleep to the noise

of the television with cluster

bombs blooming in the sky

over Baghdad? What comfort

can I give him as I draw the sheets

over his shoulders, kiss his forehead,

when he worries that if he closes his eyes,

his Aunt Batsheva, half a world away,

will not rise from her bed in Gan Yavne,

thirty-seven miles west of Ramah

where Rachel wept for her children

and refused to be comforted.

 

The map over his bed now frightens

him, and I cannot convince him,

despite the miles and miles of oceans

and deserts, that the machete

under his bed will not make him safer,

any more than the sacrifice of innocents

will save us, for he knows,

he knows, somewhere

between the Tigris and Euphrates,

a wave of steel races toward Babylon.

                                                                                            -March 22, 2003

 

 

Geoffrey Philp was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and is the author of nine books of poetry and fiction. His work has appeared in The Misssippi Review, Gulf Stream, The Apalachee Quarterly, An Anthology of Reggae Poetry, and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, among many other places.He teaches English and creative writing at Miami Dade College, where he is the chairperson of the College Prep. Department. Visit his blog here and learn more about his books at Peepal Tree Press.

 

-emma trelles

Comments

[Kafkaontherocks.blogspot.com]

Should it be "under" instead of "uncer"?

[emma trelles]

yes; fixed and thank you!

[Laura Orem]

That is an amazing poem. Thank you for posting it.