Ash-berries and acid leaves

by Nina Kossman

* * *

Ash-berries and acid leaves,
burnt acorns and poisoned fruit,
neither poor nor rich
will partake of these berries;
the ill will not become healthy,
while the healthy will become ill.

I have seen the poisoned.
I have seen the ill.
They were not saved by old symbols,
they were not saved by stripped symbols:
the poor stayed hungry,
they would eat almost anything,
even burnt acorns
and poisoned berries and fruit.

Who had the secret thought: nothing will cure us
but the cure itself?
Who had the secret knowledge: stripping of symbols
will not heal the wound?
Who had remembered the words:  silence will not cure us,
but the anger will do us in?
Who said that symbols belong to history,
which is neither black nor white
but the color of faded pages?
All it can do is teach us
how not to repeat it
again
and
again
and
again.