I Cry Poem by Robert Gaskin

I cry

You ridicule me
and your taunts
mingle with the crushing of my soul
as the rattling of shackles
the wailing of the Abyss.
When I cry
my tears fall in the heart of life
as dew drops fall from the eyes of night
When you laugh
your mocking laughter
pours like a viper's venom in a wound
in you the wars and fights accumulate
in you the sea, like time, and everything sank.
I cry
for I listen to the moaning of the poor
the laments of the oppressed
and the hope of the elderly;
this was my destiny
and in it was my voyage, my longing
and in it my longing fell
and in you everything sank.
For you hear nothing
but the happy sound of gaiety
you still blossom in song
you still ride the tide
as you lie down with lust
whose tempest has swept away
one thousand possession
of the soul of woman
into the pit of horror and shame.
It is the hour of departure
like the wave at dawn
I now embrace solitude
in whose shade
the beauties of Hamlet and Dante arose.

r.gaskin
Barbados. February 10th 2008.