What happens if you fail, patriot
Great tides will happen
In which you’ll be lost for months
And then you’ll show how you’re
Not Ulysses and you’re not Jason
And you’re not even Ishmael.
It will happen, patriot that you come home
With a large bunch of keys and
An arithmetic problem in the form of
A calendar with empty days
For tragic events and
Holidays.
What happens if you fail, patriot
In a few words, a week after
Her last day of school,
Is how you changed country,
How you waited for residency
Like a body for the ground.
It will happen patriot that the hymns
Are memento mori and
The music is a barcarolle.
It will happen that you cried
In long haul flights across the globe
For the lack of a voice.
What happens if you fail, patriot
Is how much you weren’t really
There for anyone
Despite the obvious body
Of evidence.
Image credit : Barcelona Museum of European Modern Art
Frédéric Benqué 