I Could Fill the Silence of a Thousand Years

I could fill the silence of a thousand years
with the hymns and anthems of
false guilt and recriminations,
songs of accusation
and betrayal.

I’d scream down the sun, set fire to the soil,
a scorched earth ruination
for missing gods and absent boys,
for leaving and taking,
abandoning.

Give feast to crows and ravens of varied kind;
let coyotes eat what’s left
of broken bones and my failed flesh.
Leave me nothing.

Pray, friends, if you will, but I’ve forgotten how.
The wind has ceased its blowing;
the spirit, it no longer breathes.
Their laughter is stolen;
her love is gone.


**
While written in first person, this is not me, but a good friend of mine. If prayer is something you do, pray for him.