David Adès: Tomorrow

After Jose Padua 

As the four riders of the apocalypse thunder past  

and the world teeters on its axis, I look up to see  

a gallop of clouds turning peach, watch the sky’s 

evening benediction as the clouds change shape 

and colour, as the day ticks inexorably by with its 

seepage of light, and I note the stirring in the air 

as neither warning nor blessing, but its own 

absorption in the moment, contained, perfect, 

inviolate, removed from the deeds and misdeeds 

of men, so that even as I wonder, confused, 

uncomprehending, at the seventy million minds 

caught in the delusions of a petulant, divisive man, 

at how so many have fallen in thrall to a despot 

and are willing to vote for chaos, for vitriol ahead 

of decency, and as I grieve for the terrible brokenness  

of the polity, I understand that we haven’t yet written  

on tomorrow’s page, and that it is coming, a gift  

yet to be unwrapped, for us to make of it what we will. 

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David Adès was born in Adelaide, Australia of Egyptian Jewish parents. His books include Afloat in Light (UWAP Poetry, 2017).

Copyright 2020 David Adès