Poem: “Leave it Behind”
Leave it Behind
I saw the cells of purgatory
When I was a child,
The menaces of royalty
In stiff brocaded gold
Stiff with unforgiving pain
They moved out from their cells
Where prisoners of hate remain
Inside their narrow hells
Underground along an aisle
They reached out for a touch,
A neediness which might defile,
Defilement in their clutch
Not till now to think that they
Had reached for artlessness,
Not on innocence to prey
But to be ill the less
Massive were the robes of them
Well stiffened with brocade,
Resentment sewn to every seam,
A nightmare they had made
But I passed on along the way
Between the kings and queens
Of unforgiving savagery
To tell what I had seen
Pavel
October 5, 2011