“Someone May Answer” by Arlene Zide

You may knock at all their doors-
the president,  your senator,
the landlord
Even your own dead mother’s
they may not answer
Won’t answer

But
they say in Aleppo
in the folded caves of Afghanistan,  beneath
the black crow coverings of Tehran
If you knock at God’s
door,  at some holy gate without St. Peter standing guard
someone
will answer
God or devil
Golden angel or light-bearer

The Catholics offer up their suffering to it
Jews sorrow before its ragged broken stones
Hindus hold grudges about it
Buddhists
make an art of not caring
about it

God or devil
Golden angel or light-bearer
Those who play at human lilas of pain
at tsunamis of corpses littering the beach like seashells
Indifferent clockmakers
Or sexless forces of light
Someone
may answer

who?

 

Arlene  Zide is a poet, linguist and translator whose poetry has appeared widely in numerous journals both in the US and India, including Rattapallax, Meridians, Rhino, Xanadu, Women’s Review of Books, and, Primavera.