David Radavich

Three Poems

MID-EAST MUSING

I

The lemon tree 

stands as a pale ghost.

All the leaves hang

like eyes waiting

for the arrival

of this year’s fruit.

No one can be sure—

the winter was harsh—

and the sun seems

reluctant to share

its beneficence.

Hands don’t know

what to do with

fingering—an oud?

Such a small tree.

Everyone begs 

for a taste

of the kingdom.

Waiting is

the only possibility

in the tart

mimicry of days.

II

You look over

the wall as a saint.

Aware that others

are not able to cross.

The gate is far

and not wide.

Someone has painted

slogans on both sides.

Somehow the sun

shines on both sides.

If only I could

walk around it,

spread the fields

like pollen, 

future

spring flowers.

ON DEATH ROW

What is a life

that does not sing

its executioner?

A bone,

a muscle

taut as silk.

Oak that leans

into its bird.

I do not know

how to speak

without listening.

Rock cleaves

in the storm

owning its heart,

saying its prayer.

ILLEGAL

A man lives

inside a clock.

It ticks 

like judgment,

not

forgiveness.

How to fit

comfortably

among

the steady tongs.

Eyes don’t 

matter, only ears

waiting.

Then pace

again—

and wait again.

How regular

and how haunting,

as if 

refugees

could exist

in time.  

David Radavich's latest narrative collection is AMERICA ABROAD: AN EPIC OF DISCOVERY (2019), a companion volume to his earlier AMERICA BOUND: AN EPIC FOR OUR TIME (2007). Recent lyric collections are MIDDLE-EAST MEZZE (2011) and THE COUNTRIES WE LIVE IN (2014). His plays have been performed across the U.S., including six Off-Off-Broadway, and in Europe.