TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Poem by Leonard Nolens

I've brought you with me to this halfway-house.
The loft's abuzz with voices like a hive.
Hatred and love help swell the honeycombs
With the poems to be consumed elsewhere.

Thus I portray, poison and antidote, transformed,
What I've purloined from you, a little world
Paid for with my capture of your mystery.
Only you gain freedom here in black and white.

So read me. Read me in full or not at all.
This was my wish, I'd not do this alone,
I wanted to speak, here, on everyone's behalf.
Am I a bottle at sea, a sermon in the dark?

I was still young, I dreamt that I appeared here
Like one walking singing over yonder hills.
I dreamt I wrote like a dead man speaks
With all the gift of tongues his absence brings.