The Poem To Osip Regarding God's Empty Cage Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

the name of God you said once

getting up before a small crowd gathered

there

flew out as a Holy Name

from my ribcage

then sat down

with no other word

your widow wrote later
in her memoir.

Mandelstam like you

but in another age

and on another page

I say the name of God

only the name

and mean the wildest bird

even freedom.fantastic

beyond Firebirds

the memory of music

the one with immortal plummage

the Phoenix burned

who will not burn in return

the one we would set free

as simply as you

in one poem

not even a vast one but

in one defiant gesture

a slight smile?

the Word on fire

the fire that does not consume

no more the one of secret cherishing

ah, the singing Bird

the fountainhead of Song

before the gate of doom.

uncomfortably

they shifted in their chairs

hating you

when the Bird circled back

adoringly

for certain they thought

oh how he has wronged us

or how gauche a poet

with his scraggly beard

his incorrigible delight

and their faces darkened
revealing the Black Sun

now he is done for

they muttered in no language at all

unlatching the cage for the

the wild, the wildest name

just God.the word signifying God

you let into the room

where no fresh breezes

bloomed.

me too

mary angela douglas 15 january 2018.