WE LOST

We tried to bury death
And upend the ancient coffin
And push it deep into the trench:
The six feet stinking trench.

We tried to bury death
And tear down the tears
She smears on our hopeful faces
And end mourning, mornings.

We tried to bury death
And send her off with her myriad messengers:
Her myriad diseases and accidents
To die with death as she dies.

We tried to bury her
And unmake the orphancy
She has made the Orphans;
And the widowhood, the Widows.

But death, as death as she is,
Held so tightly with a tight fist
And made us try what we tried in vain
And added more deaths, and more pain.

So we lost painfully...

But our rescue is near:
It will come with  peace and hope.
We shall part with fear
And even in death's deaths, cope!

ISAAC ESSOUN