You flashed like daybreak in the mind
I could not believe it:
You were a voyager death had taken
You were a dead man the voyage had taken
And all we did—in surprise at your return—was to run through our country
torn apart by fences and hijacked by the settlers’ grim buildings . . .
We don’t know the nature of this canal that brought us to the sea
nor which buildings or sidewalks or doleful dawn we suffered
I could not believe it:
You were a voyager death brought back
You were a dead man the voyage brought back
while I was polishing a jewel in my mind
I cannot believe that death and the voyage
took you, and brought you back.