Poem 042: On The Deathbed Poem by Samer Madbak

This is a tale, a tale of life, and not a tale of death
And this I tell to all of those who never knew the truth
To all of them who died at birth and lived the bale of death
And those who lived in death, and they who died to view the truth
To all I shall narrate my tale, for candid is the Sun
Who never stinted, gives His guiding light to everyone
But humans, being fools, are pestered by the holy spark
They shun the glare and thus forever tarry in the dark
And yet the Sun stays not His rays for steadfast is his trend
And so he shines on with the hope that one would comprehend
That this one may with words reveal the truth, divine and grim,
And save his fellowmen, if ever they give ear to him
So prithee, mortal brothers, prithee, hearken unto me
'Tis time to heed and cast away your gross loquacity
For you have blabbered much in death, and now it’s time that I
Render my final word; the moribund realitye
I died my friends, I died but glad was I to pass away
Nor did I yield in pain, nor was I subject to dismay
For sometimes death’s approach is sweet, his touch a healing balm
A kindly kiss to set a weary soul to final calm
I died my friends, but not for you did I repose my frame
I am no loving Jesus, and I seek no petty fame
And if I died, 'twas to procure remission of my sins
(So deem not that I care that much for you my squalid kins)
And had I not been ordered to spell out the verity
I would have never said a word, but parted silently.
I died my friends because your roomy world fettered my soul,
Because my scanty heart was too commodious for your shoal,
I died because you valued me “cognate to all the rest”
The time I dwelt in crags and you were soaring o’er the crest,
I died because your holy virtue bared my heinous vice,
When I was staunch in sin, you wavered o’er the precipice
I died because my tenets blossomed into prudent wit,
Whereas your perfect laws were born to linger in the pit,
I died because I granted you my treasures limitless,
Still you withheld your vanity in horrid selfishness,
I died because my hungry spirit sought a godly bread
And still your sated flesh wallowed in sin prohibited
I died because my soul was chastened by the taste of smart,
And yet the fleeting earthly joys defiled your wicked heart,
I died because I knew assembly equaled servitude,
And there you claimed that freedom lay in halls of multitude,
I died because the love I gave was meant to set you free,
But you disposed of it and chose a life of slavery,
I died because a father saw in me a dream of old,
When all I found in me was novel notions, truths untold,
I died because a mother’s love throttled my oddity,
And all I wanted was neglect, adorned with liberty,
I died because I lauded many in my pavilion
And there in orgies you would claim to praise a Godhead one
I died because a sweeter life demands a quick demise,
I died my friends and that is all you need to recognize,
And if you fail my brothers, if you fail to understand,
Or if I fail to execute the Sun’s sacred command,
Care not because the Sun will find an adept renderer
To clear the mystic humming of a lawless wanderer.



Beirut
November 19th 1988