HUMANITY
We build upon
foundations of skulls
and bones, cement made
of flesh and blood
filling the gaps between,
creating darkness complete.
We build as high
as gravity allows,
wear strangely-shaped sunglasses
day and night
against the brightest
of the heaven
we want to reach
but believe doesn’t exist,
though we always find
a deity in our curses
when our ill-made foundations shake
and our non-blueprinted buildings tumble,
adding our freshly peeled bones
to the cemented pits below.
In our inevitable death
we whisper with absent tongues
as our descendants
build their future tombs
upon our brokenness,
our words neither praise
nor condemnation, but
some strange land in-between.
Edward Lee’s poetry, short stories, non-fiction and photography have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen, The Blue Nib and Poetry Wales. His poetry collections are Playing Poohsticks On Ha’Penny Bridge, The Madness Of Qwerty, A Foetal Heart and Bones Speaking With Hard Tongues. He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Orson Carroll, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy. His blog/website can be found at https://edwardmlee.wordpress.com
