Suzanne E. Berger: Before Rescue

(for the Chilean miners)

Dark is their dog, their rice, their silent radio
Their wife now, their plows 

Darkness, the hunger,
the ragged wind that visits the cave 

Dark, who has taught light to move away —
From the corners, is darkness ready to speak

Say something, they plead  

Darkness, the empty bowl of night 

that covered trees,
trees shimmering by day near their houses  

They can hardly remember trees

Darkness, the after and before,
the empty portal

The axis now, their warden  

Dark now becoming the darkest deity:

Dark, thou must let us go


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