Esther K Bowen

I laid the stone and lost the first
Old words the modern world
can’t curse
When one small casket had gone past
I hung the gates
And lost the last

In ivory towers of the damned
I sold the ones
Who held my hand
To every hungry god and djinn
They had renamed
As medicine

Do I dare defy the ban
To salvage wealth
With mortal hands
What heaven’s Captain just removed
Yet, see the watching
World approves

I poured out drinks under the trees
Upon the walls
Of therapy
And shielded like smooth sacred stones
The clinics where
We sold our soul