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the promise, malice, lazarus returns

Poems by Ken Cathers

Car headlights in poem by Sandra sortwell makau

the promise

the last surviving member
of Heaven’s Gate
reflects on failure

I thought you were
coming back

had wrapped up
everything

was ready
to be taken away

become one
with the pure light
as promised.

I had completed
the purification
recited the prayers

left no trace
to follow.

but I was deemed
unfit, flawed

an empty carcass
left behind

let others decode
that cold calculus
of stars

reveal the secret face
that lies
beyond

I ache for what
you have discovered

pretend to listen in
hear a voice
behind the silence

am a spurned widow
in a shadow world

burn with a cold fire
watch the sky
for your return

malice

violence is a language
learned from birth

that casual slap
on the head
an arm bent back

it is the first phrase
remembered

a rock thrown
in the dark

a complex syllable
a curse hissed

how easy the rhythms
come to us, the
smug cadence of lies

how helpless we are
against it

hand slammed
in a car door

the pain naked
beyond words

catch that quick glint
of malice
in your eyes

lazarus returns

four days is not
a long time
to be dead

but the man
you bring back
is lost, confused

a poor act
for the big stage.

he refuses to mingle
stumbles into dance
has started to smell.

he wanders off
and keeps going.
becomes an imperfect miracle

a minstrel
a voice in the desert

is seen in the distance
a tatter of rags
befriended by dogs.

there are no new lines
to the story, no roads
left to follow

only the shadow world
the stray Angel of sleep
that beckons

he is empty inside
returns to the cave
rolls back the stone

remembers again
what it is to die

About the Author – Ken Cathers

Ken Cathers

Ken Cathers has a B.A. from the University of Victoria and a M.A. from York University in Toronto. He has just published his eighth book of poetry entitled Home Town with Impspired Press in England. He has also recently published two chapbooks, one entitled “Kiefer” by broke press and the other entitled “Legoland Noir” by Block Party Press. His work has appeared in publications from Canada, the United States, Australia, Ireland, England, India,the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Africa. Some of his recent work has appeared in Plato’s Cave, The McGuffin, Acta Victoriana, Zoetic Press, The Carried Away, Wild Words and The Blue Unicorn. He lives on Vancouver Island with his family in a small colony of trees.

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