Characters, voices, rows—bundled and linked Mockery, scorn, bitterness, and indifference too Go on, feel free, do as you please Comfort and reassurance—let the joy of dancing seep through This, which can be nothing, which is nothing Picked up by the eyes Picked up by the ears Things that wash ashore like waves Sealing what swirls within A blade that scrapes away the sediment within Stories Characters lined up Words The path chosen by someone’s thoughts The meaning of characters, chosen and arranged As if to kill, as if to sustain life, they shine I thought I’d accepted it, but now it’s distorted Unable to accept it Without accepting it I fall Even so, the characters and words shine Sound, voice, within the mind—sound and colour cry out Within the bones, sealed away endlessly This maddening heat— If it unconsciously skews and wounds, Then let me go mad with this heat, Inside the bones, burning out Leaving not a single speck of ash Without a sound, let me vanish in silence Head bowed, at the water’s edge, To pick up or not, to discard, to ponder To reach or not, to convey or not I smiled faintly—inside the bones, after all
