Geoffrey Godbert
Song of First Farewells
1
That single glance;
this panic of words.
2
The air I breathed on hearing your voice
was like withholding all other life
simply to breathe, breathe deeply, to breathe.
3
What are the songs of last greetings?
But you did not leave, you did not.
This is the song of first farewells.
4
We met so abundantly, remember,
we had to beg other people’s forgiveness.
5
And when we kissed in bruises, and their
ache next day appeared on our skin,
they marked the helpless places we had touched
and can feel now, as if you were still here.
6
If I say goodbye again, this time will
you answer, will you also say goodbye?
In the silence you made, I think of when
we first said hello, and smiled with sound.
7
It is morning, and the walls,
the road, the curving railway
line, your shadow, turn last corners.
8
The hands we held are broken,
their fingers hide in gloves
as if they had been rebuked
and placed in special care
for the unloved daily tasks.
9
Do poems cross poems in the sky?
And how do we receive them?
The moon must fall out of the day,
the sun must shine from the night.
10
What did their eyes see
in these crossed-out words?
Page(s) 36-37
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