Yi Lei

Our wish since forever: to be

Re-fused, unsevered.

Music, though, is an infinity, even

If any instant it will end.

there is such a word as friend,

Whose mouth does it fit in? The world’s

Mouth curls up in fear when it sees

Where we’re leading it, shuts its eyes.

I think of you, friend, and go blurry.

Would you be able to tell me

Whether there is just the one moon caught

In the net of sky, or if that’s another—there—

Skimming the water like an impostor?

I am on my way, on my way to you,

Striding the earth, it seems, the tundra

Between us, though I am nearing you now,

Nearing the tropics of your chest, that island

Around which the water rolls and swells.

I had been dreaming

Of dancing—just us two,

Here, where threat

Is the very weather

And tragedy

A soaring currency.

Yet so real. I want to feel

Civilization flourish and fall.

And I want to live to tell.

Let bodies go to Heaven!

Let souls go to Hell!

Has my life gone on so long?

I am ready to set down all of it—

Today, tomorrow, yesterday—

To set it down and walk away.

Mid-September 1986

OceanofPDF.com

. Discourse

I read materialist philosophy—

Material is peerless.

But I’m creationless.

I don’t even procreate.

What use does the world have for me

Here beside my reams of cockeyed drafts

That nick away at the mountain of

Art and philosophy?

Firstly, Existentialism.

Secondly, Dadaism.

Thirdly, Positivism.

Lastly, Surrealism.

Mostly, I think people live

For the sake of living.

Better

Merely to breathe, merely to breathe.

I’m boundless.