Mango Walk

there are no boundaries there's only light
love has no mysteries and no mystique
we need do nothing more than simply speak
and have no fear the words will come out right
we banish anger banish hate and spite
this is the garden that all people seek
an ordinary place nothing unique
but all that's here is orderly and bright
to find this refuge more than happy chance
knowing how long it took to make all clear
is not a making of some arcane art
but rises from the wonder of a dance
into the clarity of the spring air
and fills with happiness my needy heart

those worthies fail to measure every clue
leaving unknown the line of our retreat
but not a one of us admits defeat
instead we turn and look upon the view
so much is left for each of us to do
that we must keep up the long steady beat
no one would claim that we'd commit deceit
but all we say now seems not quite so new
those answers come when we are said to sigh
not daring speech under the heavy grey
since each of us now fears that we are blind
but simple truths don't come from open sky
and honest fact is not just what you say
but what you are the rest comes in the mind

voices that echo from the deepest past
are what we use to bind our hearts to hope
not just the words that command us to cope
and sight of banners flapping from the mast
there are those souls who would just stand aghast
at sight of what is hanging from the rope
but we have not the time to wail or mope
since all our fortunes into war are cast
those are the choices that the raven gave
when first it croaked the prophecy of gain
and none that horrid word would now gainsay
so wait the coming of the broken slave
and count the endless shapings of your pain
until a brighter sail comes into day

 A sonnet for blog against torture day. Inspired by Roberto Fernández Retamar's 'El Otro (1 de enero 1959).

i ask the question who has died for me?
on whose dead bones do my living ones stand?
whose fingers now inhabit my live hand?
and do i really want to look and see?
we call ourselves the happy ones and free
our enemies are but a savage band
we need to keep them from our noble land
while guarding silence on each abductee
let every answer make the matter clear
those folk are not part of some complex game
and we are not the innocents we seem
our lies have clouded what was once clean air
and put our enemies themselves to shame
but we treat the whole thing as just a dream

no matter how the vision has to end
there are some consolations we must get
not only that we learn how to forget
or that we find a path we can defend
the road we climb is one we must descend
and we have paid enough to clear the debt
that journey's one that's made with no regret
we find those things on which we must depend
just so we earn our way to the first wall
what comes past that is normal desire
and empty voices on the forest air
there never was a garden nor a fall
no names were hidden from a primal fire
we learn only to see the what and where

all those who fill the fields with empty dreams
are gone to view the morning free of cloud
we know their hope and know just how they're proud
as if they had by effort made those beams
had with a should made each one of the gleams
and done far more than would have been allowed
by any force with which we are endowed
along the banks of these fresh-rushing streams
red buds erupting mean an end to stark
winter and all passion that must return
gives us the hope that once more the freight
of what has built up during the long dark
will not in one short day blow up and burn
but show a light that will be worth the wait

aching remembrance of what's not all past
vision fades once you are through the door
leaving behind all pains that once you bore
nothing remains but signs of burn and blast
to show just where the heavy bombs were cast
no walls and towers can stand here anymore
we come on no force that we could abhor
and none of those that hate us could stand fast
where we have been is broken and unmade
those places where we go are to become
from waking dream the longed-for darling form
what we know rising out of deepest shade
on rhythm of the hearts slow beat of drum
all brought together despite weight of storm