A WAILING WALL

 

 

A WAILING WALL  

Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant --- Tacitus*

 

Either way, distance finds me

looking up or down this cliff,

an unlikely sanctuary I escape

into aching for scarce solitude. 

How can one be alone among

the darting seagulls? Or silent

with lost memories jarred by

blasts of breaking waves below? 

Here, gods revel in their haven

of whistling winds and clouds,

down there fishermen cackle,

chewing sargasso, guzzling gin,  

while their thrown nets fill up

with flotsam floating around

moss-gowned boulders staring

at the sky like dark green eyes. 

Is it this vast and empty space

between that scares me now,

when I should be murmuring

secrets to messenger winds?  

I would scream unbearable

pain, holler down bitter anger;

I must share muffled grief,

loosen taut shackles of despair.  

Either way, I find wailing walls

in air, water, rocks, and wind;

like Job I weep for peace, hope

to gently fall in the cup of palms  

waiting to catch my carrion

now carved out of a shattered

world of faithlessness and fear,

unable to hold on to life or love.  

On this piece of jutting rock,

have I not found the little place

where I could reach His Hand

quickly were I to fall, either way?

 

---Albert B. Casuga

 

* (Where they create desolation, they call it peace)