A sky in my head tonight,
only I don’t know if it’s a star
or not, I don’t know what
it wants, like the wind surely
must want something the way
it calls me through the trees
and across the still green lawns
of my quiet neighbors like someone
hissing a curse or a last
blessing before hell, but what
I found inside the dark
this time was a wave of something
warm that almost seemed to,
or did, hold me there
for a long enough second
so I could see the brightly
sonic outline of everything
that wasn’t there, and be freed
by that and made happy for you,
so here is the smile of my mouth,
only half, as it should be, and here
is the smile of my eyes I hope
you see some light in, and here
is the smile of my fingers held up
in the shape of the lotus, that heals
and that satisfies,
but I don’t know why peace
is still too much to ask for,
or why the landscape must
include the inconsequential
corpses from both sides,
as if posed for some demonic
puppet show for the generals
to enjoy in the imperial garden.
The flaws of our reason have finally
shivered into shifting plates
of what we knew all along,
come to pass.