“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy. They said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How can we sing our songs of praise while in a strange land? (Psalm 137:1-4)

They gave us a space

At the bottom

Where we can see wider spaces

Circling above us

with vultures

 

They captured us to cage us

Where we can be their entertainment

And learn “useful skills” for their profit

So we can love them for the benefit

And forget the tortures

Where they can continue to look down

Where they contain us

 

In this empty space we sit where

no trees shelter the joy we brought with us

We weep because we forgot

What we lost

We weep because we remember

What we no longer sing