A Great Beauty
And when her son never returned
from the meant-to-crush-him camps,
the crucible of Poland,
always-hard-at-work Isa slept
for endless hours,
and once, under her lids, she was led,
by diligent female Virgils,
to a vast meadow
where an inspirited Isa embraced,
one by one,
countless women who remained
in mourning for their cherished sons.
Gallant and stricken,
together the myriad bereaved
but defiant women formed
an ever-widening circle,
prodigal with bitter tears,
and then, suddenly,
like a jackdaw darting
from eave to sun-drenched eave,
something flew between the throats
of the grieving,
heart-gutted mothers,
and a great beauty arose:
In the dream, Isa recalled,
the singing of the harrowed women
with war-taken sons
hushed the world's barrenness.
In the dream, the startling river of sound
altered the embattled earth.
Copyright Credit: Cyrus Cassells, "A Great Beauty" from The Crossed-Out Swastika. Copyright © 2012 by Cyrus Cassells. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.
Source: The Crossed-Out Swastika (Copper Canyon Press, 2012)