Disburdening
Disburdening
by Shoshana D. Kerewsky | Bellingham, WA
Galician downpour floods the gutters,
sheets the cobbled streets,
drips from grey facades, soaks through
my tattered shoes to my cold feet.
Grey water gusts. Unfathomable arcs
spatter my head, saturate my jacket.
Goodbye, dream of sun-glow and moon-glow.
Ciao, robins and redstarts in Alameda Park.
White paint flakes from old stone walls.
The piper shivers, works her stiff fingers
on the gaita’s punteiro, a wet
and melancholic welcome, hello.
Raindrops tap staccato counterpoints,
my manumitted hopes a quodlibet.
Slowly sluiced, all history dissolves.
Praise this sudden deluge, then, amen.
I let go of photographs and words.
I doubt. I let doubt gurgle out.
Gargoyles spit, selah ongoing.
Hasta la, you dogs, you pigs, you fiends.
Hasta la, hasta la, I lay down
my wishes, fantasies well-drowned.
I circle the Cathedral round,
worn stairs washed in torrents and cascades.
I lay down all earthly illusion.
I relinquish heavenly desire.
I ring this granite stupa once and twice.
I cannot know if James lies at its heart.
I lay down on the Praza in the rain,
released from the mirage of my arrival.
Now I lay down what walking here might be,
disburdened, free.
