Of Me You Sing by Mara Lemanis

 

Of Me You Sing by Mara Lemanis 

 

Of Me You Sing

 

Of me you sing

not thinking

you are the song in me

the hum of choirs

driving comets

pulling suns into quasars

you sing scales you compose

and keys you can’t name

but custodians tally your notes

name names in their catalogs

index your song

the landlords of words

who plunder your scales

poach your breath

swear by the power of names

Adonai, they chant

El Shaddai, Elohim

Ashur, they mouth

Mithra, Imana

Atman, Brahma

Allah, Ka.

They plant them in scrolls

lock me in vaults

where I’m not

what I am

not a thought for

the null point

the absolute zero

where all names stop

where all songs freeze

But that’s just a theory

they say

the landlords of scrolls

who mark down my name

from zero to one

I’m the dust of the cosmos

I can settle on zero

or settle on one

I am dust

you can trust

The One

in eternity’s bandwidth

all that you sing

is my song

inside you

 

      Mara Lemanis

Image 1: Marc Chagall, La Thora, Image 2: Marking your Song