The Commons

....................."The house ... is never seen, either by the eyes of the body or those of the mind."
...........................—Hannah Arendt

............1

Woods, meadows, streams
shared by community
in old German law:
so green will have a dwelling.

............2

The language was shared.
They had it in common.
Prepositions were their tonic.
Every morning they made love.

............3

Without a public realm,
freedom has no worldly reality.
Despots banish people to their homes,
where they speak in whispers.

............4

"I miss the village green
and all the simple people.
I miss the village green:
the church, the clock, the steeple."

............5

People flee a city
when buildings start to fall.
Only rats and pigeons—
we have them on surveillance.

............6

I had dreamed it so:
a threshold and a grave.
All the world's a slum
and we its shadow workers.

............7

Here to speak of ruin
in an age of plenty.
Fresh Kills filled with sofas.
Human flesh remains.

............8

Meanwhile in Manila
children play a game,
blindfolded in the dump
reaching out their hands.

............9

When tsunamis come
they also cleanse the world
Everything flowing over,
tumbling into grace.

............10

So a fool said
on his way to church.
Let us praise the dead
with chilling nonchalance.

............11

I had thought I knew
how the world would end
but all I really know
is how to stare and point.

............12

No one goes there now
There is not a place—
our commons but a song
lost as it is sung.

--Maxine Chernoff