de CLEYRE, Voltairine “Marsh-Bloom”
literature: poetryDE CLEYRE, Voltairine (1866-1912) BRESCI, Gaetano (1878 - 22/05/1901)AudioPublished in [Selected Works]->art5554
You may also listen to this poem on the LibroVox website read by Sergio Baldelli
(To Gaetano Bresci)
Requiem, requiem, requiem,Blood-red blossom of poison stemBroken for Man,Swamp-sunk leafage and dungeon-bloom,Seeded bearer of royal doom,What now is the ban?What to thee is the island grave?With desert wind and desolate waveWill they silence Death?Can they weight thee now with the heaviest stone?Can they lay aught on thee with "Be alone,"That hast conquered breath?Lo, "it is finished"— a man for a king!Mark you well who have done this thing:The flower has roots;Bitter and rank grow the things of the sea;Ye shall know what sap ran thick in the treeWhen ye pluck its fruits.Requiem, requiem, requiem,Sleep on, sleep on, accused of themWho work our pain;A wild Marsh-bloom shall blow againFrom a buried root in the slime of men,On the day of the Great Red Rain.
— Philadelphia, July 1901