Christus Ultor (Text + Audio)

The keen white teeth of daylight bit
Down hard on my uncovered eye 
That foamed with colors like rainbow blood.
I staunched ‘mid tears the shaken flood
Of yellows and reds which broke from it
Blindly in the long black skirt
And soft flesh of my mother’s thigh
And fastened it afterwards on the dirt.

She said: “We’re nearly at the wall,
Amir. – Don’t let your t-shirt fall!
Keep waving it high so the men that sit
On the edge can see it, and they won’t hurt – ”

I felt her weight sift through my hand
In hers, and shudder like hissing sand – 

And an evil laugh rang out from the wall:
Amir, don’t let your t-shirt fall!
I heard the devil’s laugh, but not – 
Though many times louder – his hellish shot…
And hiss of her clothing in the weak wind,
The gray earth shifting under flesh,
My running feet and my cousin’s cry:
But the noise of that laugh from the devil’s face that grinned
On the high wall’s edge no laboring thoughts can thresh
Like stubborn wheat from the beaten husk of my mind. 
It will echo there till I die.