within your secret name there is a window

within your secret name there is a window

the world is desperate to enter

it crossed the bridge of my unfinished body

and then vanished

it stole my voice to use as a map

my hands and my eyes,

these are just a few of the cages

the world drags behind its crusade

for your name.

*

but  i have a hidden body

that the world has never held,

a hidden mouth the world cannot hear

and i have built an incomprehensible ladder

and i have set it against the dark sky

and all this time i have been climbing.

from a hand for the drowned  © Mike Schertzer, 1994