A Single Leaf. A poem by Josephine LoRe

A Single Leaf

this poem is a leaf 
falling from a tree

this poem is the stillness 
after the last echo sounds

the pause between an exhalation 
and the next inhale

this poem is gravel 
embedded into knee

an offering of thanks 
for a crust of week-old bread 

this poem is the rumble 
of armoured trucks
a deluge of debris

this poem is every story
every footfall walking 
further from belongings
step by step toward the safety 
beyond borders

this poem is a pacifier
in the dead grasses 
by the roadside

family photos
curling in the flame

this poem is fingers 
playing a white piano 
for the very last time

a baker in a land of foreign tongue
braiding dough

this poem is centuries of steady leaving 

flaxen-haired children 
playing in the grasses 
of the Canadian West
hearing tales of their babusya

this poem is the pattern 
finely painted on a paschal egg

a ribbon woven 
a dance steeped in folklore

this poem is empty words and hollow lies

this poem is arrogance
the hubris of ambition
a heart of anthracite 

this poem is despotic
the colour of blue sky
golden sun
a tattered flag at dusk

this poem is the world watching
too afraid to condemn

the pause between an inhalation 
and the last exhale

this poem is the silence that thunders 
after the last echo

this poem, a single leaf 
falling from a tree

this poem is a doll, trampled
a fountain, withered
markings for growth pencilled on a door jam
of a house in which the roof 
has fallen in

this poem is a whimper in the night

this poem is Syria, 
Passchendaele, Dakar
this poem is Dresden, Tripoli
Ukraine


this poem is polished leather 
marching in the mud
to the counterpoint of hatred

this poem is a drone
the barrel of a gun

this poem is a daffodil 
sprung from ground 
no-one there to marvel

this poem is a prayer 
unanswered in the dark

a graveyard
headstones tumbled in the tumult

this poem is hope 
navigating in a blind sky

this poem is fear
the stench of death

a seed swallowed 
in the belly of the plenty

this poem is numb

this poem is sirens, air raids, blackouts
a mother shushing a wailing child
eyes dimmed 
by the hunger and the horror

this poem is robin muted
barn owl stunned into silence

this poem is humanitarian 
drop by single drop
the cold press of metal

this poem is making its way over rubble
the body yearning for comfort
for respite, for home

this poem is the blue glow 
of late-night news
the drone, the drone

this poem is Gallipoli
the battle of Batoche, Beirut
Leningrad, Michilimackinac, Kyiv

this poem is a weightless child
borne on weary shoulders

the elderly, infirm left behind

this poem is the same mistake 
repeated

power, greed, and lust 
all the venial sins
and all the mortal sins combined
and circles
circles upon circles of inner hell

this poem is the atrocities of man
barriers, fences, roadblocks
undiluted hate

this poem is a cry tearing the veil of night

this poem is a leaf
a single leaf falling from a single tree

this poem is a stream running red
bodies rotting into ground

this poem is letters undelivered
lovers lost to each other in forever
babies not conceived and never born

this poem is fields untilled, unsown
song unsung
country churches
windows smashed and broken

this poem is chickens left to rummage
cows unmilked, sheep unshorn
a horse dying of starvation 
on cold ground

this poem is the moon 
hung low in desperation
the deportation of Acadians 
at the point of bayonet
Tibet

Jerusalem, Berlin:  walls of wailing 
walls of brick

the floating exodus of Viet Nam
this poem is Mogadishu, Rwanda
the Lost Boys of Sudan

this poem is drownings in the harbour
the Noche Triste, the Fourth Reich

this poem is the West Bank and the Nile
the War of 1812, the war of secession
the war against repression
the war against concession

this poem is a reed basket
Daniel and the lion
Samson shorn
this poem is David 
without a slingshot or a stone

this poem is a leaf, a single leaf 

falling from a tree
a single tree
floating on a river

a river turning red

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Josephine LoRe’s poetry has been read on stage and in global zoom-rooms, put to music, danced, integrated into visual art, and published in anthologies and collections in 11 countries and 4 languages.   Publications include FreeFall and Vallum in Canada, Fixed & Free and Tiny Seed Journal in the US, Constellate in England, Ireland’s Same Page Anthology, and the Wild Word in Germany. Josephine has two collections, Unity and the Calgary Herald Bestseller The Cowichan Series. https://www.josephinelorepoet.com/