I Am in Babylon Dying

Allen Grossman

The bell pursues me. It is time to die.
It is the hour when no man works. I feel
My time fill up with leaves like a dry well
With many autumns over it, leaves that I
Leave to sigh in the ears of my children. My enemy
Asks for a song, but I sing not. Let the willow
Tell how many sons of them my sons will kill
Before they forget Jerusalem. I cry
Not though the bell pursues and the willow hangs over.
This is vile captive food these my tears.
Iam in Babylon dying. In the leaves that cover
The silent women by the river my fear
And hate hang like a harp which the wind will ply.