Finally
we sat in haste
grading our thoughts and words
unburying the spent day
skull-clippers
picking hearts, whispering laughter.

A haunted light on sheets and walls
our beliefs furiously neglected
two broken fighters
held in four ruined walls.

Born for so many who want us,
we turn in exile to see
the night unfolding
the half of day that held
the place at peace.

6 October 1964

Companionship
if you were restless
so’s to move
as fast as
my straying days
among an alien race.
Living in isolation
—an empty sky to worship
you could
only reply
shall we pray and obey
without question?
Unnumbered memories
all-knowing strength
brick mortar
lead timber
for building houses,
what causes the delay?

April 1965

They are now dead
and will be
there forever
under the late night
rain no living sound
is heard.
Nothing has changed
out of their
nothingness, though
spring has dared to come
back again.
Time’s self-destruction blossomed
at dawn, at noon, at
dusk, and left
a smell of old bones
where there were boughs and birds
and things that sing
through the idle air.
And they are dead, back
to the bare gate to know
how darkness falls
on nothingness.