Numberless

By Charles Bane, Jr.

Praise to Allah, and though

He exists without a place,

from the camps of refugees

come prayers He bids us

fear. Numberless are these

displaced and if my mind

were as His, I would rain all

the lights we have named

replenishing the dark

with those too far to know.

Let them fall. Let every cast

off have cooking fire, and

the extravagance will be

returned by a million voices in

the desert behind the morning

call.

 

Charles Bane, Jr. is the author of The Chapbook (Curbside Splendor), Love Poems (Aldrich Press) , and Three Seasons: Writing Donald Hall ( Collection of Houghton Library, Harvard University). He created and contributes to The Meaning Of Poetry series for The Gutenberg Project, and is a current nominee as Poet Laureate of Florida. http://charlesbanejr.com.