There Is Light

Take off the masks, people,

And also walk barefoot and naked.

There’s a light at the end of the long night,

There are days.

 

***
 

I bid you farewell tonight oh flute,

I bid sad poetry farewell—

I bid the dance of death farewell

And depart.

I bid the lights,

Philosophies,

Tales,

And voices 

Farewell

And depart.

This night comes slowly—

Bearing the last memories,

Tonight, is the feast of death,

And tonight, you’ll say “she used to be”

 

***

 

The ‘Ah’ has grown hoarse,

It has grown longer and died.

These nights—This is Damascus

And beyond—It’s not after waiting

That I lie next to the wild silence

And the pale moon,

And sleep on the blank page— 

Nothing is smaller than this planet,

Stay up tonight to the dregs.

 

***

 

This wild porcupine

Runs Along the roads—

Eating thorns, and sleeps under the tree trunk—

Nothing is quieter than the life of the wild porcupine, 

And nothing is gentler than the life of the wild porcupine

***

 

This is the face of the executioner.

Take your sword

And plunge it in the heart.

A red flower blooms 

Which I gift to my love—

Welcome—beginning—

 

***

 

What are these distances 

And empty spaces—?

Alone, I run infinitely.

There’s nothing but amazement and absurdity,

Nothing limits these distances,

Neither a friendly hand 

Nor a loving hand.

Let me stop.

Oh, widening life,

Where are your walls

And your gates?

Where are the good guardians of the earth, where are the smiling angels?

At times I grow,

And at times I grow smaller.

Even the fences and the thorns

Have disappeared,

And the lights have turned off.

Is this a desert—

Without sands?

Are these dreams 

That we wake up from?

I’m a child with colored ribbons,

I weave my dress

And make my own doll,

But who should I gift all this beauty to?

While the world is desolate and widening,

And I’m running infinitely.