Poem: “Memorial”

by Pavel Chichikov on Aug 04, 2012 in Poetry

Memorial

O dragon, dragon, what tower do you build?
A tower built in Babylon at which the worm is skilled,
Skulls are of the walls of it, mortar made of bone,
Who can know the plan of it? Only I alone

War and hunger are my slaves, fire is my heart
With which to melt the bones of them, the building then to start,
When I breathe corruption to fertilize the air
Each morbid exhalation raises up another stair

The temple at the top I made is of the sheeted gold,
Beaten and compacted, thickened fold by fold,
On the altar I lie down, beneath me is my treasure:
Agony and violence, hopelessness and terror

A child and not inhuman, my form was of another,
Then in passion long ago I sacrificed my brother,
This is his memorial though I alone remain,
Fire is the mark of me who once was known as Cain

Pavel
August 12, 2011