From " Signs "
I .
- I am not the shade who upholds the bare tree
- against its dissolution,
- I'm not hunger to strap stones round my belly and suck
- your emaciated breast.
- I am think like the figure of fear ,
- I contain the thirst of embers
- to transform themselves back to branches ,
- I do not pray for what's to come
- - nothing will come -
- and I don't concede to reverence .
- It is a chain of ants that raised this earth
- and now erodes it slowly.
- II.
- Your face is purer than the mirror ,
- luxurious and more eager.
- Colours rejoice around your head , rejoice
- and Ah , they suffer.
- Offer death a libation for the past ,
- it may accept and stay.
- And it's the same : your destroying a lover
- or your destroying things out of love .
- Now the mirror's clouded for you ; break it
- and say : " My eyes see better ."
- III.
- I just forgot
- nothing more
- I forgot
- the salt of creation scorches my eyes
- and the sand of insomnia
- I try to remember:
- Does water describe the shape of fountains,
- their pattern of fluidity ,
- and indicate the day's greenness,
- or does water have
- the shape of drowning ?
- IV.
- Rejoice twice:
- when you see the sand turn wet and soft
- and when it becomes water
- Twice rejoice:
- tomorrow will be overcast
- and shade compose a sky
- And hide just once
- for a scoundrel might inherit the earth
- and scratch the living.