Latest / Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast / There Was a Day

Transcript

There Was a Day · Backward Mutters Poetry Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now there was a day in the land of Oz when everything I loved was taken away.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: And as the sun went down,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I sat on the ground of this dried,
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: dead wilderness of desert brown, dry as my eyes that cannot cry anymore.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And here, neath this leafless tree, I wonder if I will ever be whole again.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: If I would ever want to live to see another day.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: The sky turned from yellow-orange to red,
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: and the crimson gave way to the darker hues of violence,
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: the violet, black, and blues of the beating I'd taken that day.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: What did I do for this?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why was I stripped is Leaving all that is left to mark one by one a death and
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: a death and another death, another leaving?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is grieving the only way I'll remember my love for those who died today?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I thought if I clung to you that you would keep me from the beasts of grief and fear.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Is that not true?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: What good then does clinging do?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: What's the point if you won't keep me from these things,
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: if you will not shield me with your limbs, lean over, cover, and shelter me?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now there was a day in the land of Judah when the love who is everything was taken away.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the sun went down on a mother who fell to the ground outside the walls of
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: a dried, dead town of desert brown, dry as her eyes that could not cry anymore.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And here,
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: neath this cruel tree,
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: she wonders if she will ever be whole again, if she will ever see him alive someday.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: The sky turned from yellow-orange to red And the crimson gave way to
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: the day's darker hues of violence,
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: the violet, black, and blue of the beatings they gave him that day.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: What did he do for this?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Why was he stripped,
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: made into a game by those who bet for all he had left,
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: while she counts each cry, one by one, till his last breath?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: To them, she was just another mother grieving.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Is grief the only way she'll remember love, the love she bore, and who died this day?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I never thought that I would see my son murdered so ruthlessly.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: In all the years, I never thought in my heart that this would be the part he'd play.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: That of all days, this day would become his wedding day.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: How could I have known when I asked that he was waiting till the last,
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: so that on this tree,
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: stretched out like a vine, he would give himself as the best wine for me.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: There will be a day when the love worth everything will return everything taken away.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: There will be no fading light.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: As life rises from the green ground,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: that which was dried and dead shall teem with life,
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: and every tear found wiped from our eyes.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: There beside the river Neath a boulevard of trees we shall walk in an arbor
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: of peace, in the shade of leaves which fall in healing on you and me.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And in that dappled light we shall see, see as he sees us.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: The sky breaks with the red and orange yellow of day.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: The crimson calls to us, Rise,
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: O sleeper, Rise, awake,
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: and the darker hues of violence,
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: the violet, black, and blue of beatings taken will slough off and be shaken away.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Did he who was hanged on the tree do this for you and me?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: The one who still bears those scars, will we, the blessed meek, find everything ours?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Stunned by this bliss, in silence we'll wonder what on earth did we do to deserve this.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: There it will be asked of us,
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: do you see,
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: that all which you bore was born by me,
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: that what you were left to do I did not deny myself,
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: that I too was not kept from those things,
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: that on that tree I clung to you,
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And by it leaned in love, leaned over to cover and shelter you and hide you in me.