The Stone-word

A finer-grained time lies thicker on the ground.

We take out the warm lining of overcoats,

replace one sleeve with a sleeve of a different colour.

Beyond the slower times the city dreams itself,

dreams of itself, its footprints, the nightwalk,

alarm all night becomes a kind of weather.

There was no walk, not for me, nothing to read,

sick without books, I wasted day,

the young, strong, demanding sun, the unwounded leaves.

Useless in the shadows of the sheds, I invented

a small abandoned notebook of doubts

concerning words, held it between my two heart fingers.

And the sight of the end of the platform

loosened a very long perfume that had ease

of gathering into my ceiling blue as an eyelid.