byLance Henson
- just outside arles
a full moon over the rhone river
crossing into europe a week ago from america
an insistance vague and hollow descended upon mein a zen painting two blind monks are crossing on
a log bridge above a river
feeling their way with their handsas my cheyenne uncles before me
men hunted and murdered by democracy
I watch the unsteady winds of an unfinished prayer
reaching into the human worldand where does the fabric of struggle
find its reposein the streets of bosnia
in the torn and ragged mists of south africa
or in the blood stained trees of amazonia
night grows into itself as a butterfly aflamejust outside toulouse
I remember a girl with auburn hair
on another train one year ago
we crossed a border of friendship and terror
she disappeared into a sarajevo night
or was it belgrade or chiapas
or papua new guinea where the stars are weepingwherever it was she never returned
this story is happening again
and the world goes on unraveling
for danielle . . my friend and a casualty of the war in ex-yugoslavia
biver france jan. 22 95