Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

year after year
he survived
the wars

and struggled
many more years
to reach home

home had turned
to rubble
wife and children
shadows on stone walls

he fled
seeking a place
where he could raise
a new hearth
as Nature insists

he knocked on
neighbouring states
fat paragons
they forbade him entry
fat is for the avaricious only

he approached
distant countries
skinny mendicants
they chased him away
the skinny are always famished and never share

he drifted
toward
the sun
the rainbow
the stars
the icebergs
on lucky days
he followed
a motherly river
a fatherly wind
the rain
the snow
the migrating birds
deserts welcomed him
smelted him down with wisdom
he became a prophet
pious men seized him
and trepanned him
with a crown of thorns

polar regions welcomed him
put a bone into his penis
he became a bear
men with factories
dug a hole in the firmament
and melted the ice

rain forests welcomed him
decked him with miraculous plants
he became a healer
eaters of gold and silver
set the undergrowth on fire

mountains welcomed him
fixed him with wings
he became an eagle
men with electronic devices
shot him down from the skies

seas welcomed him
gave him flippers and the lilt of dolphins
he became a leviathan
men in ships
harpooned him

Eden welcomed him
taught him good and evil
he became a judge
men with nuclear waste
irradiated him

he escaped to an abandoned woman
she gave him breast
sheltered him between her legs
men frightened of love
stuffed her vagina with stones

he found refuge with bands of children
strengthened their chests
taught them ancient resolve
men preparing Armageddon
shot them all in the back

he crawled back to his old home
and there on the rubble
and by the shadows on the walls
men who loved God country and strong leaders
quartered him
for crimes against humanity

thereafter
none dared fraternize with him

he had become
the stranger
the other
the alien

he had become
you
he
she
we

me