Poem: ELEGY WITH JASMINE AND IRON
ELEGY WITH JASMINE AND IRON
The silence calls out from a grave
the ground embraces what the living can’t
and sorrow seeps below as dark as exile’s blood in that hour
the wounded earth receives
and will not close it
What famine rearranges the days
when faceless lives are scattered into ash
love itself weeps oil into the throats of seraphim who sing
oh mothers beloved
oh shattered kin all
What becomes of the ripened fruit
when lions fold their golden bodies down
Where does joy wander when the lion sleeps in silence underground
oh land I’ll never hold
you breathe inside me
Your jasmine is in my marrow
your quince and pomegranate blade and cup
the book the quill the hunger of bodies learning how to open
the lovemaking that grieves
the iron hunger
The roses drown within their weeping
yet Persia’s wounded soul lifts its face
how do we suffer any tender thing to bleed and still abide
oh country oh my love
how do we still live
Marni Fraser
0311.2026
Jasmine by Marni Fraser
