VIII
What time before dawn
I dream that I reach the precipice
and I fall, fall
without my body?
All deaths are staged here
by people
the breath of leaves is heard
new birds replace yesterday’s
just to sing with
one flutter, one soul.
Where am I at that moment
the only important moment
that underlines the great adventure?
Where am I when
they take away from me
one spring every night
and I don’t touch the womb
that gives birth to
the butterfly that dries up?
Ages!
All ages are poor
and the age of eighteen
is dimply lit by the other miracle;
ages don’t taste darkness enough
and they don’t count
the value of the body
the infinite nature of the body.
And innocence, like blindness
and the old fool saints
fly a kite up in the air.
At that time when the poets
match innocence with a wolf
that moment, known only to the body
that writhes, growls
the sleepy sky turns dark
I and you too die
a thousand times
before dawn.
Manolis Aligizakis 