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More of the Poetry of Michael Foster

I LOOKED ON LIFE

i took one look at life
and covered my eyes
and closed my ears
and drew back my face
but life came after me
groping with warm fingers
feeling for me

and i fled
and threw myself
down from its ugly lips
tumbling down
through soundless depths
to oblivion

and at the bottom i looked up
and still could hear
the human cries
split the night
so far above

and still i ran
and scrambled through my gaping jaws
on bleeding knees
to the coral cavern of my skull
and huddled there
in the cooling breath of darkness there
cringing

and life was no more
only the thin silence
and stillness of time
within my bony walls

i sit
in this dark
and cool
and still

i sit
crouching in the dimness
of this covering solitude
peering out

through black and sightless holes

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GOLGOTHA

AND it came to pass that upon that day
the people of the town seized the man
and took him to the hill
called the Place of a Skull
that lies on the east of the town
where a hole had been struck.

There to the hill they took him
and laid his back on a slab of wood
and slammed nails of iron
through the bones of his hands and his feet
and shouted and sang and screamed
in their throats and their eyes
to the time of the iron driven down.

And he lay there among them in silence
with tears in his eyes
and a song in his heart ...

They hoisted him up
and planted the cross
in the heart of the hill
and it shook with the shock
and the blood of the man
ran in red rivers on to the ground.

And he hung there among them in silence
with a sadness of tears in his eyes
and a song of praise in his heart ...

And the people fell on cursing the man
where he hung by the holes in his hands.
They danced and laughed and spat on the
.....man
where he hung by his iron hands.

And the man looked out upon them
and blessed them in his eyes
and forgave them in silence
in the rhythmic depths of his heart.

Then from the farthest corners of his soul
there rose a dreadful animal cry
that shook the very dust on their feet.
It rose from his throat and echoed
and rose and echoed again
down the green-grey vaults of the valley
into the haze of the lands beyond
and then he was dead.

And the people were sudden silent
and stroked their chins
and dug their toes
into the ground in fear
and would not look
into one another's eyes.

Then slowly they went their ways
and returned to their crowded homes in the
...town
and the hill they called Skull
was left silent and bare
but for the cross and the bleeding bones
of the one they had murdered there.

And Behold!
Night crept quietly in on the hill called Skull
and dwelt in silence on the troubled town
and on the following day
the sun rose from the east at dawn
and returned to her seat in the west
at dusk ...

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I NOW HAVE SOME
TWENTY YEARS

In a heavy time measured grey and hung out
I now have some twenty years
in measured time strung out
and down the high tensioned road
there are some who lie sprawled and bleeding
in my ragged wake of passing
and some who sit softly weeping
for the speed of my passing
and yet many others who still stand
in silent grey positions
and lie waiting
for others to come stumbling
to slash and crush their bones
as they go running
as they struck and battered mine
with their heavy hidden weapons
of thoughts and words and ugly deeds
they stand and lie waiting
for others are sure to come
as we are an ageless line
who have no place to stand in time
measured long strung out
we are an endless line

and through it all
though the scars hang deep and long
my tongue has been untouched
and must silently sing out
when it will
of the quiet sounds within my mind
where no heavy club or sword
clutched in no grey hand
ever
can come near
and though it was not easy
and though the scars hang long and deep
my tongue has been unspoiled
and must silently sing out
when its hungry seeking eyes
draw out and softly touch
yet another silent ear.

for we are an ageless line
we who have no room to stand
who need no room
who want no room to stand
or lie or sit or crawl around
in a heavy time measured grey and hung out
we are a long
and endless
line
moving

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EPITAPH

.... and in that year
the body of walter michael the second
passed through the ragged mountain
of collected pain
and off the face of this coveting earth
out into the plain of eternal night
and the wind of his spirit
whistled across the ancient scars of his tongue
and touched infinity with a white hand
thus ...

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