Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

John Eppel

FOR THE DISAPPEARED

FOR THE DISAPPEARED

FOR THE DISAPPEARED

For those who burn or float face down, what tears;

what family protests smashed by rifle butts;
what withered whispers in what wasted ears,
of spilling, like beans, the  brains and the guts?
For those in anthills or in mine shafts stuffed
like unironed washing, load on jumbled load
(one still in rusty leg-irons, one handcuffed),
what bells, what bugles, what intended ode?



But vigils, tongueless, levitate the night
while Law-and-Orders’ boots respond to spit,
and somewhere in a rural hut, a light
is casting restless shadow-shapes that flit
and flicker, not fading before the dawn,
but waiting, like winking coals, to be born.  
Close

FOR THE DISAPPEARED

For those who burn or float face down, what tears;

what family protests smashed by rifle butts;
what withered whispers in what wasted ears,
of spilling, like beans, the  brains and the guts?
For those in anthills or in mine shafts stuffed
like unironed washing, load on jumbled load
(one still in rusty leg-irons, one handcuffed),
what bells, what bugles, what intended ode?



But vigils, tongueless, levitate the night
while Law-and-Orders’ boots respond to spit,
and somewhere in a rural hut, a light
is casting restless shadow-shapes that flit
and flicker, not fading before the dawn,
but waiting, like winking coals, to be born.  

FOR THE DISAPPEARED

Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
Lira fonds
Versopolis
J.E. Jurriaanse
Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
Elise Mathilde Fonds
Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
Veerhuis
VDM
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère