The Good Ship Rachel Corrie
Israelis called the “Rachel Corrie” “Linda” as they boarded it to force it into port, they couldn’t call it by its real name f…
ONE DAY DEATH KNOCKED
One day death knocked and knocked and no one answered –
Only the door’s wood-grain in resounding unison answered
A water drop on the lip of a glass was held suspended –
Only shadows cast by trees like oars on a galleon answered
We were all safely dead to death – we were all satisfied –
Not even the xylophone bones of one skeleton answered
Death was stymied – death turned livid – not used to this treatment –
We’d reached a state of eternal life – as if only a jaunty disembodied accordion answered
But it may have only lasted an eternal nanosecond –
Because finally – after a non-temporal millennium or two – someone answered
The door swung open – now we were face to face with death again –
And all of us who by then had been by life undone – answered
But it was a different answer – it was a smile of sweet recognition alone –
It was an easy flow in which we – held in love’s burning sun – answered
The knock comes – in the middle of the night or morning – always uniquely –
But we can’t leave the knock – for all its intrusion – undone – unanswered
The whole universe resounds with its tapping – its light fist on our door –
But like a spy on this side of the door – death’s work must be well done – answered!
Ameen – breathing easily in your chair by the window and its clustering birds –
When death knocks may you always remember to respond to none but the One – and answer!
7/21/2002 (from The Flame of Transformation Turns to Light /99 Ghazals Written in English)
(photograph by Salihah Moore)
Categories: Poems