Here and Again

      after ‘The Here and After’ by Jun Miyake

Half-sliced      a lily on the table

petals burning white on white

there’s no saying who’s under that skin

salt spray     spindrift      a taste of rust     

a drop of blood    just name it     

it’s there     a knife-slit away    

not waiting for someone to whisper     

come alive     come alive

instinctively twisting back to spawn

to begin again the incantation    

the ragged waltz     half-here    

half-gone     you touch your lips

to a lily’s wound     this is sorrow    

it murmurs     the pain is gone