Betsy Mars

Noah’s Ark

After Charles Reznikoff and L’Arche de Noé by Chagall

Where are the dead of the flood
who missed the ship
who lost their grip
who were not picked
to go below the rainbow’s arc?

Where are the dead of the flood
the ones who swam, the ones who float
in indigo waters beyond their depth,
beneath our vision, begrudged their breath –

their souls unbodied,
mortal bonds broken –
where are the dead of the flood?
Their bones become reef,

their grief unsanctified –
where are the dead of the flood?
Where are the goats and the hens
who sank, blown down on the whim of God?

No burial for them in a fine linen shroud
or in a matting of reeds.
Below God’s butcher block
a sea dyed red  -
there are the dead of the flood.

Previously published by Panoply.

Atelier Lumieres

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