If there was a better place

Would you seek it out?

If peace was at hand

Would you reach for it?

And on this road stand thousands

Weeping for all that is past

The journey’s at an end

We are done with our old ways

But they are not done with us

There is no air left

In this closed fist

The last breath has been taken

And now awaits release

Where the children sit waiting

For the legacy of waste

Buried in the gifts we made

I have seen a better place

I have known peace like sleep

It lies at road’s end

Where the silts have gathered

And voices moan like music

In this moment of reaching

The stone took my flesh

And held me fast

With eyes unseeing

Breath bound within

A fist closed on darkness

A hand outstretched

And now you march past

Tossing coins at my feet

In my story I sought a better place

And yearned so for peace

But it is a tale untold

And a life unfinished

Wood-Cutters

Tablet IV
Hethra of Aren