A WAILING WALL

A WAILING WALL 

Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant --- Tacitus*

Either way, distance finds me

looking up or down this cliff,

an unlikely sanctuary I escape

into aching for scarce solitude. 

How can one be alone among

the darting seagulls? Or silent

with lost memories jarred by

blasts of breaking waves below? 

Here, gods revel in their haven

of whistling winds and clouds,

down there fishermen cackle,

chewing sargasso, guzzling gin, 

while their thrown nets fill up

with flotsam floating around

moss-gowned boulders staring

at the sky like dark green eyes. 

Is it this vast and empty space

between that scares me now,

when I should be murmuring

secrets to messenger winds? 

I would scream unbearable

pain, holler down bitter anger;

I must share muffled grief,

loosen taut shackles of despair. 

Either way, I find wailing walls

in air, water, rocks, and wind;

like Job I weep for peace, hope

to gently fall in the cup of palms 

waiting to catch my carrion

now carved out of a shattered

world of faithlessness and fear,

unable to hold on to life or love. 

On this piece of jutting rock,

have I not found the little place

where I could reach His Hand

quickly were I to fall, either way?

---Albert B. Casuga

10-28-11

* (Where they create desolation, they call it peace)

(The quote from Tacitus was used earlier by Simeon Dumdum Jr., a Filipino barrister and a poet, in his Facebook post. Poet and university professor Mila Aguilar posted the cliff picture in her Facebook entry.)