Lament
By Bert Meyers
1
I looked for you at the cemetery.
You have two addresses
on a metal door in the grass;
but you don’t live at either one.
2
When I was a child
and sick at night,
you were the moon
above my bed.
Father, father,
I saw you smile
at a sparrow
the way you smiled at me.
3
What else awakes and knows
it was born, it will die.
The same clouds come and go;
the same bird sings or flies.
Notes:
“Lament” was originally published in The Wild Olive Tree (West Coast Poetry Review, 1979) and is reprinted with permission of Daniel Meyers. For more information about Bert Meyers, please visit bertmeyers.com
This poem is part of the portfolio “Bert Meyers: A Gardener in Paradise.” Read the rest of the portfolio in the January 2023 issue of Poetry.
Source: Poetry (January 2023)