Angelos for Clarissa and Tiaja
The messengers come, bearing gifts.
They come and go,
erecting their jacob's ladders
in chalices
made of tears.
Many are the names
the messengers bear
and the names
are a kind of gift as well.
Seraphim,
cherubim,
angelos,
arhat,
djinn,
these are a few of the names.
The first messenger was named Lucifer,
the light-bearer,
for he brought the gift of light.
Some messengers, like comets
washing their white hair in black ether,
like eclipses frightening the earth
with the bright snakes of their coronas,
are said to herald news
we do not wish to hear.
Their names are the names
that have been erased.
Their gifts are the gifts
we do not wish to hold or keep.
These are the most sacred messengers.
When one of these terrible angels comes forth
into the wide world
and we hear the thunderclap
of the name that has been erased--
We will bow, very low.
When the angel comes home to us,
and speaks
on our tongues,
we will listen, so completely
gravity will no longer hold our feet to the ground,
our hands made ready by prayer
will be lifted up, not by our will,
to take the gift
and bear its unspeakable message
to all the silent tongues.
Dana Pattillo, 1996
