each one yoked from head to foot
each one racked by claw and tooth
Ears inured to hope
only the drum
Eyes condemned to ape
only the dream
THE SLEEPWALKERS
With wide eyes open
they walk into a morning
where darkness shines,
their feet descending
a marble stairway in the mountain
flanked by stone lions.
Holding hands, they cross
a sudden bridge, and pause
to view the clouds
below them. Silence
spills from frozen waterfalls
to stay the river's course.
Farther on, they come
to a garden whose golden stem
lifts her and him
in its calyx palm
and bursts the lovesweet dram
from their summer's bloom.
Now winged, they cruise
between glass walls to gaze
inside the zoo
of human cages,
those illusions of space and size
multiplied in mirrors.
Not to be deceived,
they glide down vertical waves
of light, where love,
having slipped time's gyve,
can happily ever after live
in the sea's bright grove.