because
you have
wrestled

with God
and men
and seen

the face
of God
and lived

because
you have
wrestled

and struggled
and contended
and lived

because
you have
seen the face

of God unroll
like a scroll
of flame

because
you have
been tyrannized

and deceived
and hunted
by men

I will
change
your name

 

 

---

Robert Fernandez is the author of the poetry collections We Are Pharaoh, Pink Reef (both from Canarium), and Scarecrow (Wesleyan) and co-translator of Azure (Wesleyan), a collection of work by Stéphane Mallarmé. His poems have appeared in Huizache, The Nation, The New Republic, Poetry, Transition, Yale Review, and elsewhere. www.robert-fernandez.com

 

 

 

Photo by Benjamin Grull on Unsplash