#760 - the emancipation

 

31.i.22

760

3.31

the emancipation

thoughts of unsleep

 

forget which way it was over the border

I remember the Sydney Harbour Bridge

and other side Byzantium

everyone had to walk

who had a passport back then?

 

it was quinquereme

and palanquin

 

‘why believe this one?’

ancestor asked

for which temerity and custom

became a vine and grew

the garden over

air as free as sunlight there

hands cupped for the rain

 

all the while a rhapsody

whatever strings there were

and tuned them

minor corners

scurry, run

pitchforks, flaming brands

 

you have to imagine what we were chained to

can put a year on it

there was a tax on being

it was named after us

for municipal pride

 

spring again, the old riff

cruel days of now and then

 

can sing in any language, mend

 

in all the forms of time we sink

you can look for me

we’ll be gone