All that is me (Even From This Distance)


1.

Even from this distance
I feel the icicles of sadness
hang deep from your tears
as you walk alone
in the Garden of the Lost Hearts

and I watch from the bower near the entrance
which is covered in roses and dust,
your shawl placed over your head
so that your mourning is lost
to the shadows that cling fingers of loss
across the landscape of your life.

When you will return I do not know
but please do remember
that looking over a certain happy alley
there is a certain window
where sits a single lantern
that cuts through the shadows
to illuminate the place
where we stood
with our fingers entwined.


2.

All that is me
is an atom in a box,
one who is merely a minute unit,
powerless and insignificant in the ways of life,
who has yet to give birth to my Jericho

but first I await my longest of walks
beside the river-road
with baby Jesus in my arms.

I will hand him to you
to hold and love
but first I must find you
in the crowd of pilgrimage
from a distance where
the icicles of sadness
hang deep from my tears

while I walk alone
in this Garden of the Lost Hearts
as I watch from the bower
near the entrance which is covered
in roses and dust,
my shawl placed over my head

where my mourning
sits a single lantern
in the shadows
of loss across the landscape
of a never-returnable journey
for her to find the way.

Sheema Kalbasi and Roger Humes

Jericho: Believed to be the oldest city in the world. Today a thriving market-town near the northwest shore of the Dead Sea with the archaeological remains of a 7th century palace and ancient synagogue.