At school, the look-up homework <br />one day was ‘mercy’… <br /> <br />and that proved itself <br />to be indeed itself <br /> <br />what the dictionary said <br />haunted; seemed inadequate; <br />haunted again <br /> <br />he smelled his life, as one <br />smells Spring in the air <br />of a freezing January day <br /> <br />every one of his thoughts <br />began and finished <br />with the word unsounded <br /> <br />then his actions too grew <br />out of it, returned to it <br /> <br />his friends, his wife, his family: <br />some heard it, some did not <br /> <br />years passed; in the darkness <br />of the quiet evening street, <br />the great and famous called on him <br /> <br />what he had to say was <br />too great for the public, <br />too young yet for the public <br /> <br />but the word, nourished, <br />slipped into the courtroom, <br />whispered in the palaces, <br /> <br />stood behind the priests <br />who did not say it yet <br />heard it murmuring in their ear <br /> <br />while for him, the word grew and grew, <br />flew with him higher ever higher <br /> <br />so they talked of how to martyr him <br />because the word was too big for them <br /> <br />he died before they decided on his fate <br />and was that too what it meant <br /> <br />leaving the word in the air like <br />a limitless embrace, like <br />the warm wish of a departing guest <br />said over the shoulder with a smile, <br />a wave, a memory <br /> <br />and a sowing and a growing, <br />a reaping, a vastness, a light, <br />a boundless love<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/he-flew-with-angels/
