Call & Response
In this last
book by Zbigniew
Herbert, Elegy
for the Departure,
in a poem
titled “Chord”
a previous reader
has underlined the passage
that ends
the poem—
“truly truly I tell you
great is the abyss
between us
and the light”—
and written
alongside
it 4 words—
“our my
anguish
melancholia”—protest?
consoling note
of empathy? or cry
for help
against the cyclonic
injustice
of an unhappy
life?—
on one side
of the page 14
words by
the poet dead now
10 years;
on the other, 4 words
printed neatly
by a living man or woman,
troubled, nameless.
