Part One
Sentenced to death
it is time
it is precious breath I've spent
all these cold years
waiting for the choice
that's never nearer. In my dreams
I walk past stumbling men
confused by shouting
they're bleeding on the pavement
I walk past a man
who seems slightly pale :
why did I choose this street
that turns cold? Rooms have bare walls
that stare at what remains:
how much I've hated all our
wretched tight-lipped differences,
building up
to breaking point, or compromise. Once I felt we could relive our love
but then it became clear
feelings were dead.
Then, you ask, why did I choose this room
that turns cold?
why do I choose this way of dying? Time comes to lash and destroy in fury
each moment of time draws me nearer:
I shall not be measured beyond
death and all the darkest time eternal stands
and hurls me forwards: anguished shall
strike these hollow times short with fury. Part Two
That I carried a smile was not in doubt;
they were just not sure why. Running along the street, it's time;
I left them thinking;
who was that girl we thought we knew? There was not much to do; fingerprints
planted led to quick arrest and trial;
I confessed. One year ago was when it happened;
how hard they try to forget my smile. Part Three
I was flying kites
when I could be trying hard at school;
all summer long, twisting, turning and
marching on telegraph poles
I lay stretched out for miles
saw ten thousand teachers
drag the sky down with fear of failure
and shreds of reason. See in the garden a child
will she be the same as today?
the storm of the world crashing
on my lips and eyes and eardrums
cries out to end them all
and dream of nothing Memories made of air
last no longer than seconds Voices quickly melt into distances
fearful the shadows of sound, exiled
now my friends put on
the cruel masks of the beast
who would stay to ask them questions?
don't you know that
all the human race is dumb?
it never spoke and never will
I search for my friends
in the monstrous stomach of this silence
cry for my friends in the endless spaces.
now my tongue forgts and freezes
engraved with cyphers
stripped of word of cry
I turn forever, beating circles
hollow frozen wheels that witness nothing. Part Four
I break open stars finding nothing
and again nothing and again nothing
then one word in a foreign tongue
one unknown word Part Six
Now feel the fire that burns the sun
by this fire our time will be won
I believe in humankind
self whose fear whose darkness lies
before us: we stand here with open eyes
no more gods shake tyrant halls
fling thunder and lightning down
at our side, to make stone sing. | 