THE PLUNDERING ANGEL




As though the solitude of men and of the temple

were some day to bring days of celebration or harmony,

as though this growing drizzle were a flood

that creeps inside with fear,

as a voice that wishes us to be reject and scandal,

the plundering angel comes: swift, with wings of fire setting everything ablaze with fury,

reveals the soul of the books,

splits space wounded with yellows and blues and flames,

burns desire when it issues from the lips of desire

and marches with the sound of a storm of pearls

while the temple collapses.

All that is left to us is a piercing pain

on the altar of memory.