The Last Sunset by Laura O’Driscoll

The Last Sunset

The Last Sunset was sad
And beautiful
And scored the sea-roof
Like an open wound 

A soundless requiem
Unhinged us –
Murderers
The only mourners
Watching at the wake
And we the dead
Already standing in our graves

Lachrymosa

Stung by silent song
Our hands were stained
Our bloody work was done

And we the dead
Already standing in our graves

Watching the surrender of our Sun
Our work was done

The weeping song.

The air was thick with blame
And silence
Blood
And broken life

Where was the deeper drumbeat
Of our future now?
Our manmade evolution
Brick and mortar, metal, murder, hard cold stone-hard giants

Rising from the Earth
To beat her down –
All dog-drowned
In the tomb-sphere

Conscience-crushed conquistadores
They come,
Cry,
Conquer,
Crumble into dust
And finish just
Beneath the justice
Of the world they crushed

Watch.
Our angels were all paper dolls
Our shrines the shrinking bones of self
Sham-sheltering
Beneath a weighting sky.

Be brave.
For we the dead
Have seen it
We the dead
Already standing in our graves

The Last Sunset
Was Ours:
Our sun, our sky,
Our gift,
Our lie,
Our open wound,
Our broken child,
Our single greatest unforgiven
Crime