Figures Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

Figures that surface
Now and then
In verse and song
My verse and song
O let them come
When they so desire
At times
Immense of quiet
Bring
At times celestial fires.

We ate dry bread
You and I,
My Monsignor that
Was yesterday
Today
We go a further step
We eat black bread
Of misery
And hear the fugue
Sad and loser
Of burrowed graves
In camps and
Human hands that throw
Human sacred bodies in
The troughs:
Then cover them with
Dug-up soil:
I dreamt
You dreamt, my Monsignor
What ugly dream to dream!

But we
We Monsignor are now
Almost in competition
For such dreams
We dream and dream
Our body sweats
Our arms
Our mouths sub-conscious
Sigh
Sub-conscious of a sudden
We
Find ourselves
Half-risen on our beds
With
The first dim line of light
Of consciousness just
Breaking!
Dawn peeps through the chunks
Of the closed windows:
There’s another day!