nocturne (for Anjie)

Miss Saeki closed her eyes, giving herself over to memories. There was no more pain there, for someone had siphoned it off for ever. The circle was once again complete. She opens the door of a faraway room and finds two beautiful chords, in the shape of lizards, asleep on the wall. She gently touches them and can feel their peaceful sleep. A soft wind is blowing, rustling, like some parable. She's wearing a long blue dress. A dress she wore somewhere a long time ago. Its hem swishes as she walks. The shore is visible beyond the window. And you can hear the sound of waves, and someone's voice. There's a hint of the sea in the breeze. Small white clouds are etched against the azure sky. And it's summer. Always it's summer.

______Kafka on the Shore, Murakami



from Silent World, Michael Kenna

i am Autumn's moon, who watches her sleep,
and kiss her yellowed cheek so she smiles (and will never remember doing so, it was soo late,
____and lasted just a second's second.

the ocean spoke too much, concerned only with herself,
i couldn't get a word in. ____finally, listened to her, (but was somewhere else:

where the nighttime, sat with her head to the glass of my room, crying softly,
____no one else awake to hear her, she spoke to me, who could not speak back,
____though my eyelids (the place to kiss if any), know all language, and drew her close,
and kissed her nose before a leaf fell.

a convergence of silence: ____the shadows, stars, nocturnal trees, wind, parked cars,
____the Mutes, we pronounce litanies such:

and such: ________and such:

____(and march, hands in laps, drifting weeds, peripheral movements:

expanding with inhalation the whole of the universe drifts a little farther,
the leaves hold hands but edge away, toddlers on separate waves, (hearing centipedes giggle is my secret)
Time unwraps herself like a procession. Her fingertips first, then up her arms, her shoulders,
(i am kissing each crest as it comes), her neck, ears, her forehead (she sighs because i love her),
i breathe and kiss her nose, (save lips for last) i dart past them to her chest, my face full in, her skin- stretches past me and beyond:
all eyes, all dreams;
all wonder she is:
breasts, belly, pubis, ____(i kiss) :
thigh, knee, calf,
ankle, dorsal, toes

where else can you find such vast aloneness?
________(i am skinless from being untouched,
________crowd closer friends, (more shadows, darkened weeds, a cat now,
________crowd nearer, things that sigh, and dream silently,

(i am Autumn's lover,
black Time's endless toy
Nighttime's one consolation)

________crowd in friends,
________come nearer to me,
________i can't feel the stars, ________what skin is there
_______________________________for untouched men?

_______________________________what dream is left?
_______________________________(what hour is this?)

(the bird's eyes, ____the flattened cardboard box collects moisture,
things that have words are long since asleep,

________wordless creation, crowd in,
________what stories we are, ____what silence, ____what pause,
________what restraint
________what fury

____