Else

I am drowning in a sewage sea.
Let me swim among the parrot fish,
Sing the songs of whales
And hear the echoes in the depths.

I am buried in corpses.
Let me break bread,
Hear the voices of their children,
Learn of Purim and Tisha b'Av.

I am stuffed with the starving.
What would pot bellies do else,
What would crying faces but sorrow,
What else all woes but suffer ?

I am dying,
The poetry of men with spirit masks,
The songs of the season of atonement,
The pictures of innocents,
The dances of animals.

Let me see the light soften
Over the lost valley
Before the last morning.

Take my heart with one last kiss
Before you take her.

Leave me, with your skulls on sticks.
Every drop of blood,
I am crying,
Forever.

Else I am a ghost
And in my hand the scythe.