‘Lost’ and Other Poetry by Mandy Moe Pwint Tu

Lost

The angel’s cry, the devil’s kiss:
How did you let it come to this?
You claimed the darkness too:
How when the world was screaming,
You thought you’d best be dreaming;
You thought the lies were true—

O, you have made a mess of things;
The world breaks stars and circus strings,
The wheels, they whirl and burn;
The lightning shapes the earthly plain
And all who sleep are washed by rain,
And never do return.

Don’t weep, my sweet, sad, human child,
The land is rough; the sea is wild
And sorrows teeming thrive
In restless hearts and whirring heads,
And demons sing beneath our beds
And hinder where we strive.

Yet stars still shine amid the cold,
The autumn’s leaves are just as gold
As sunlight o’er the streams;
So though the world may scorn you now
Yet though you lose your way somehow
You’ll sail back with your dreams.

Of Atlas and I

He said:
come sit with me, young mortal,
your eyes are cold and pale
your smile is faint and empty
your skin has grown so stalecome
sit with me, young mortal
and tell me of your life:
you have loved and lost, O surely,
you have known some strife?

I said:
Atlas, bearer of the skies,
pray tell me how you stand
how you live out your punishment
imprisoned on the land?
Atlas, bearer of the skies,
how do the heavens weigh?
Do you wish for some release
some broken, happy day?

He said:
young mortal, fair and true,
my arms have grown so weary;
my eyes have seen the sun
sweep over constantly;
young mortal, fair and true,
you do not know my sorrow
to bear such burdens day to day
with no relief tomorrow.

I said:
keeper of the skies, dear Atlas,
you have made much sacrifice
and had I strength as much as you,
I would not question twice.
Keeper of the skies, dear Atlas,
to bear this burden in your name,
for the sky may love the earth so fair
and dare not stoop to shame.

He said:
young mortal, bright and true,
you do not understand
my doing binds me here forever
forever to the lonely land:
young mortal, bright and true,
the heavens weigh not so much:
it is the weight of human hearts
that tremble ‘neath my touch.

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