Carmen is a Cat

Letter To The Dead

"Didn’t you like the way the ants help
the peony globes open by eating the glue off?"
-Galway Kinnell, "Why Regret?"

Don’t blow out the last light in my soul,
the one called pity, the one called empty
for it is the only one that burns.
Its unsteady flicker consumes
atom after atom of air,
the breeze wanders through her door.
The lighthouse keeper has locked
his shop and turned away the sea
in agony where his breath holds
the final blow to all that burned
all that beckoned he has stowed
away his key. Beware the cool
vapor that settles near the quay,
beware the tips of your fingers,
beware the beating of your heart
where nothing but stones and stitches
remain. The movement of its chambers
disrupt the universe where stars
melt into time and the past
behind which is more past
and the past.

Kaak vendor on the Corniche in Beirut, circal 1990s. All rights reserved.