stories are built on stories as clouds are built on clouds
and a ziggurat inclines I mean defines light in plain sight
and night slips in like a guest death and rebirth on the river birds from another
world nest in green birds alight and go across a continent your world
next in green and silence suffuses the land between the two rivers and your river
that’s home your mother your family land solid under your feet

stories are built on stories as clouds are built on clouds
and god the lord of the garden gets up and walks in the cool of the day and
pomegranates and dates fall all summer long it’s amazing beauteous fair
in sight of the river and the god the lord of the garden walks in the cool
of the day Gilgamesh Enkiddu The House of Wisdom where poets and music
fought for a place at the table this table

where your family is where your family sits and breaks bread
and tea is offered and hands and foreheads kissed revered
my friend Pedro’s country and yours resume like music with no peers
around to say what can and can’t be said
your mother leans forward and offers a chair like a word
and the book opens the stair goes up

silent as if stars

20-21.xii.14 ( 19 )

c 2014 MICHAEL MCDONAGH