Poetry by Tirzah Mason: 13 Questions Wait For An Answer

13 Questions Wait For An Answer

   How will I sleep
without a thousand 
bombs awakening 
my screams?

Where can I flee when
all around me is falling
prey to gravity’s unyielding embrace?

Whom will I call out to
from the echo 
chambers of
my ruined heart?

When will the sun shine
on newshorn grass that covers newborn bones and ancient teeth?

How can I eat with teeth
and tongue tied up in 
the endless words of hunger’s tuition?

Where will I sing the songs of love
in the midst of hate’s raucous dancing?

What music can I 
make with only the accompaniment of my
murdered joy?

Which suit should I put 
on the corpse of hope 
for the wake that 
no one will attend?

Why must my pen
surrender its ink
to words that only
blacken the day?

How will I scratch
my truth onto 
crumbling stones with 
an obsolete vocabulary?

When will heaven offer its answer to questions 
no longer asked by
mouths filled with stones?

What cry in the marketplace of certainties
will announce 
the latest bargain?

How can I repair my tattered soul when
all of the thread 
has been used to close
the eyes of the dead?

Who can answer?
Anyone?
Anyone?

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Photo provided by Tirzah Mason.

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