Leaving America

Poemata X

ALL bags are packed, all heads are counted
To this our sovereign days amounted
Get thy house in order now
This alone your days allow;

Take to the sky, take to the sea
Take with you what you will be
Leave behind in Babylon
No trace of what is dead and gone;

Do not fear that you must leave
Do not the faceless hills bereave
Extinguish ev'ry shoreline lamp
Step onto the boarding ramp;

You have trod on it before
Tread it then in faith once more
One man will not unsink a ship
Not for a stiffer upper lip;

Those who break the speed of sound
Cannot while they grasp the ground
In this world, and now because
Just survivors make the laws;

Death as sleep's a starting place
You will see me face to face--
What worth is woman or man or sod
To one made only for our GOD?