Once Again

Violence and love, image glimpsed in fatigue
in those exquisite performances

I lose my spirit. Unforecasted snowstorm
this life suddenly chaotic. Before waking

cold flesh. Then conscious. A short
bridge stubbornly reaching for the other

side, metal of another reality, created by machines
of our age. Sick minds with superior intelligence

for the most part stark black and white
in the neutral dark taking over life

The harbor is still there, a magnificent idol
replacing merchant ships and their returning cargoes

A crowd of new age types in the blackening water
search for their souls. Water birds with slender wings

fly into eyes filled with salt water
closed moments sighting violence

epidemics, fleshy hate-filled eyes
Afterwards, love. The retreating eternal

precise tide leaves behind it the loneliest
most grief-stricken, beside a shining rock pile

Dreams full of detail, brushes filled with
ink, held by a returning people

in swollen hempen hands. Love
satisfied, a body trampled by temperament

In the reality and collapse of violence those awakened
twist and turn in fear, those still to wake

in endless hatred, loss, despair
all destined to be punished. Driven by our own

desires out of control and uncontrolled evil

translated by Hil Anderson & Keith Waldrop