The Seal

I hear hooves
One horse
The fighting is over — what is so urgent?

Twenty-three men lie here
and I got as far as nineteen
Four I could not ask
Their breath went first
Those four stay as empty lines
And today one horse comes

The seal is still whole
Nobody opens it
Nobody has to open it to know
The seal is still whole

He came down off the horse
There is a decree in his hand
Nobody is reading it
These are faces that know without reading
The fighting is over, so a criminal is a criminal again
The pardon covers the battlefield
Outside the battlefield it does not cover

The seal is still whole
Nobody opens it
Nobody has to open it to know
The seal is still whole

And then that man's hand went into his coat
I saw that hand
I know what is in there
I read it for three days myself
Did that paper save these people?
It could not save them ten years ago
It cannot today either
That paper will not kill them
It will kill you

Have we learned nothing?
There was a king of twelve years old
His uncle took the child away
Six said no and died for it
Six did not die — they walked out
They threw away their office and went to the mountains

Dying is not the only refusal
Dying is not the only refusal
Dying is not the only refusal
We remember the six who died
We remember the six who walked out too
Nobody has forgotten them
Living is also a refusal
Walking out is also a refusal

He asked me
Then what do we do with these names?
Give them to me, I said
And what will you do, he asked
Nothing
Only I will not lose them
Until when, he asked
Until there is someone left to ask

He took his hand out
It was empty
You did well

Dying is not the only refusal
Dying is not the only refusal
Dying is not the only refusal
Iron remembers
And a person writes
And the paper waits
The seal is still whole
And still nobody has opened it

Snow is falling
So the ink does not freeze
I carry it inside my coat and walk