VALEDICTION TO DESNOS

You held out for life
when the Nazis brought
a passing dark cloud to Paris
when believers of all kind
were embarrassed by
their Vichy watered down
shameful strife in capitulation
but I offer a pure song
of miracle for liberation
from your poetry's loving words
at a cafe bench
for a post-war rebirth
in your vocation
remembering your words
on the burning sand and sea
watching Zuydcoote's wings
of a thousand birds
once fallen from blue skies
as jet planes on the Atlantic
quickly set to fly
at the dawn or at twilight
to rescue partisans in the forest
like my cousin Mendes at Lyon
hiding on the over night earth
the Allies call Dunkirk
hold up my one red rose
at first light's implication
by the woken up river bed
forever frozen in memory
in your name Desnos
to deliver your valediction
that God may deliver you
in English and French
wishing for saplings
near branches of gulls
over the million skulls
killed in animosity
by sheds of a spring garden
where you died at Terezin
to keep all poets, children
and the knowing citizenry free.