“Don’t worry, I will return,” were not his dying words.He had no dying words.
There was no pretense, no implosion.11:00 p.m.
He was quiet, remote, dying,sheer as a curtain.
The body is a big dumb object, he taught us.Death is a genius.
“Do you understand?” he did not say.11:05 p.m.
Still no protest.Around him we were
a collectivefor which there existed no name.
Vortex?Hive? Enigma?
Astrophysicists were askingfor suggestions.
Terror. A terror of black holes,someone proposed.
Yes, that was true.Silence. A silence of black holes,
Between the reemergence of right-wing red-baiting and Donald Trump’s use of the chilling National Security Presidential Memorandum–7 to criminalize left political organizing, we’re seeing McCarthyism reborn before our eyes.
This assault on democracy cannot be ignored or wished away. Resisting it requires bravery in the face of threats and repression, a steadfast commitment to the truth, and the unwavering belief that we can—and will—overcome this darkness.
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Onward,
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation
someone proposed.That too was accurate.
What is metaphor?What is metaphor for?
For you, my father,genius in a big dumb object.
For when the curtains shiveredand we saw you enter the vortex
of world peace,with its hive of enigmas.
Catherine BarnettCatherine Barnett is the author of Human Hours (winner of the 2018 Believer Book Award in Poetry, a New York Times “Best Poetry of 2018” selection, and a finalist for the T.S. Eliot Four Quartets Award). Her forthcoming collection, Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space (Graywolf), will be published in May.