After "Never Let Me Go", a painting by Jenifer Follman
There is a bard at the end of the world
who is made of sand that swirls and swirls,
out there at the lonely beach at time’s end.
He plays a song that none can ken—
this bard at the end of the world.
I thought of him when your flag unfurled
over my land of tears and peril—
may my wailing not offend
the bard at the end of the world.
And when all the yarn of the fates has been twirled,
may all the spears and arrows we’ve hurled
dissolve in the song of foe and friend,
in the cordial sand that must ascend—
the song at the end of the world.
Brian O'Sullivan teaches literature and rhetoric at St. Mary's College of Maryland. His poems have appeared in Rattle, HOWL New Irish Writing, ONE ART, contemporary haibun online and other journals.