poetry

Beyond Recall



Nothing matters
to the dead,
that’s what’s so hard


for the rest of us
to take in --
their complete indifference

to our enticements,
our attempts to get in touch --
they aren’t observing us


from a discreet distance,
they aren’t listening
to a word we say --


you know that,
but you don’t believe it,
even deep in a cave


you don’t believe
in total darkness,
you keep waiting


for your eyes to adjust
and reveal your hand
in front of your face --


so how long a silence
will it take to convince us
that we’re the ones


who no longer exist,
as far as X is concerned,
and Y, that they’ve forgotten


every little thing
they knew about us,
what we told them


and what we didn’t
have to, even our names
mean nothing to them


now -- our throats ache
with all we might have said
the next time we saw them.


--Sharon Bryan