Au Revoir, Césaire 

Au Revoir, Césaire
From birthplace, Basse-Pointe
You sang: Fouta Djallon,
Remaining a Negro
With your Visa of Pollen
scoffing: Benin Widow,
bundle the firewood!
Words, islands, sojourns!
History, a rat’s tail
slung about as poems -
we heard you coughing

 April, month of showers
has not betrayed us
We knew it was coming
past this fecund sun
Some cry of Death, but
We embrace it, for
Only the ants bear out
our solemn duty:
the pallbearers’ strained poise
at the half hour

Edgar Othniel Lake, novelist and poet, lives in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.  He celebrated Césaire’s life on April 19^th, 2008, by hosting a Poets’ Reunion for 39 poets, part of National Library Week celebrations at the Florence Williams Public Library. His poem, “Au revoir, Césaire,” was published in The Virgin Islands Daily News, April 22, 2008