intangible

[gedankespieler]

Edit:

Amber round the rusting tarn, oak tree spindles
net Gedanke from the wind.
Their grasp too weak, the sky too vast,
they cannot understand what passes
through their fingers. Their reflections
are wise enough to dance alone,
ignorant of shadows that
dance behind them.


Long before the day is night
and memories autumn fog,
leaf skeletons crumble in toddlers' hands
and crackle underfoot;
before the thread of self is glimpsed
and lost in dappled garden shade,
is lost amongst the tangled strings
the shallow faces left behind -
these phantoms haunt the garden path, haunt trails of lace,
will never leave the maze -


and while the driveway gravel crunches
under fallen leaves, the Himalayas
shrink to dust and pavements grind
to sand, the car to rust.




Original:

Leaves turn brown, crunch underfoot, vein
skeletons crumble in toddler's grasp
before day is night and memories tear,
before the thread of self
is found and lost in dappled shade and
lost amongst the tangled strings of
pathways left by shallow faces -
phantoms haunt the garden path,
haunt trails of lace -
and while the driveway gravel crunches,
the Himalayas shrink to dust
and driveway gravel grinds to sand:

on steely sand,
the car rusts,
becomes sand.