Following my last post, I saw a news program about the exploitation of women in the role of housekeeper to diplomats. And just before that I had a dream. They came together to make this poem.
VOICES FALLING SILENT
on the outside
she looks composed
as we all do
ordinary
she tells her story:
born into poverty
hired as housekeeper
high diplomatic mission
in another country
lied to
freedom denied
rights ignored
wages withheld
imprisoned
worst of all
separated from her children
she says
my soul is broken
on the outside
composed ordinary…
like all of us
on the inside
a broken soul…
like all of us?
****
i dreamed…
leonard cohen and
his great love
marianne
together
to the end
he is dying
he rises up
singing loudly
poetry pouring out
impassioned ecstatic
utter abandonment
to the moment
and then
the echoing silence of
a withdrawing dream
i wake with lingering exuberance
of a passionate outburst
slowly stained
with growing fear
o, he is dying
there’s a crack in everything
that’s where the light gets in
but what if that light
long forgotten
long shut out
long despised
now withdraws?