Shores
Shores
Daniel Alex
Et ecce infantia mea olim mortua est et ego vivo.
The violet clouds at sunset turn their eyes upon the sea.
Mother, the sky-veil has held our gazes, our Lord has held us
in silent contemplation and warm discussion.
Would that I once again felt your embrace,
would that I had felt it sooner.
Sunset is here.
The violet clouds turn their eyes upon the sea.
My ever-forgiving Mercy,
I spoke, I laughed, I was flesh:
I gave a life away, to the void of cloudy Unbeing.
I spoke and I laughed and I was flesh,
and I knew not myself in my knowledge.
All was not all. The pears I can’t return,
though I may plant a thousand pear trees: no
those pears I cannot return.
My ever-forgiving Mercy, Lord of Creation,
my soul faints for your never-changing courts, repents
the burning of the flesh while my soul was cold and arid –
my whole self faints and faints for your courts, O Lord, O One.
I recall sitting, waiting, while the others made their jests,
spent in jest this life, this passing whisper –
my eyes fell upon the fragrant meal.
‘But this bread, it is but medicine,
this drink, this. And is my sight not blurred?’
That bread was not life – it kept only the flesh.
I had not yet tasted the bread of life.
Amid the Manichaeans’ chatter
my soul rested upon a question.
Mother, can you see me now – do you see clearly
that this is your son? My heart cries out for you, O mother!
Do you remember the birds in their flight
that day, do you remember, as the sun descended – you said,
‘Son, the sun sets in my body also,
but my soul knows only blooming dawn.’
The violet clouds turn their eyes upon the sea.
This soft wind blows the trees westward.
I hear the screams, and the women cry in terror
as alien men break in their houses.
My flesh, too, is blown westward,
but my soul lies in the East
with the promising shores of dawn.
—St. Augustine
Daniel Alex
Poet & Student
Daniel is a twenty-one-year-old MA literature student (at the University of Lisbon), and this is his first time being published. He has, however, won first and second place, respectively, in two writing competitions during his bachelor’s degree in Aveiro. He loves writing poetry, fiction, and essays.
Photography by Ekaterina Astakhova