XX: Those who created God

Selected Poems of Juan Gelman
translated by Hardie St. Martin

XX:  Those who created God

those who created god with
one or two men or
converted man into god were
punished with eternity while
those who started off
by naming the fear of death accepting
the sudden or terrifying end
(not as fury oblivion or limit) and

regarded their neck as something relative
their shoulder something temporary their
ribcage something borrowed those were
dispersed through time and history

scattered on earth like seed planted
in the sun heavy with solitude
or indecision and buried in thought
before the graveyards of white birds