[Editors’ Note: Learn about how the “Nine Poets Speak” series came to be in place here.]
Photo by enrico bet on Unsplash
I remember you giving me glimpses
of a past that haunted you,
memories of war that robbed your sleep --
your boots soaked in human blood;
one of your men begging to be let go,
then dying in your arms.
You told me more than once,
but the telling did not make
your nightmares go away.
Instead, they repeated,
and I think they were still repeating
as you lay dying and unable to speak.
Does death heal the nightmares of memory?
I want to be told your suffering is over,
but how do I listen to you now?
The answer comes when I am alone
and feel your peaceful presence beside me --
no words needed. All is well.
Author’s Note: "Loving the Dead" is a true story. My partner of 27 years, Albert E.B. O'Brien, was serving as a UN Peacekeeper on Cyprus when the events recounted in the poem happened. Many years later, when we met and began living together, they were vivid in his memory. He said he could still smell the odor of battle.
I began writing the poem without knowing where it would go. I just knew that the events on Cyprus had affected my life too, and so I began with those. In the process of writing, I felt his presence, peaceful, and knew that his suffering was over and my empathic suffering was over too. All truly was well with both of us.
Meet Mago Contributor, Harriet Ann Ellenberger – Return to Mago E-Magazine (RTME)