The Straitening

*Driven into theterrainwith the unmistakable track:grass, written asunder.

The stones, white,with the shadows of grassblades:

Do not read any more - look!

Do not look any more - go!

Go, your hourhas no sisters, you are -are at home.

A wheel, slow,rolls out of itself, the spokesclimb,climb on a blackish field, the nightneeds no stars, nowheredoes anyone ask after you.*          Nowhere                    does anyone ask after you -The place where they lay, it hasa name - it hasnone.

They did not lie there.

Somethinglay between them.

Theydid not see through it.

Did not see, no,spoke ofwords.

None awoke,sleepcame over them.*          Came, came.

Nowhere                    anyone asks -It is I,

I,

I lay between you,

I wasopen, wasaudible, ticked at you, your breathingobeyed, it isI still, but then you are asleep.*          It is  I still -years,years, years, a fingerfeels down and up, feelsaround:seams, palpable, hereit is split wide open, hereit grew together again - whocovered it up?*          Covered it                    up - who?

Came, came.

Came a word, came,came through the night,wanted to shine, wanted to shine.

Ash.

Ash, ash.

Night.

Night-and-night. - Goto the eye, the moist one.*          Go              to the eye,                    the moist one -Gales.

Gales, from the beginning of time,whirl of particles, the other,youknow it, though, weread it in the book, wasopinion.

Was, wasopinion.

Howdid we toucheach other - each other withthesehands?

There was written too, that.

Where?

Weput a silence over it,stilled with poison, great,agreensilence, a sepal, anidea of vegetation attached to it -green, yes,attached, yes,under a craftysky.

Of, yes,vegetation.

Yes.

Gales, whirl of part-icles, there wastime left, timeto try it out with the stone - itwas hospitable, itdid not cut in.

How lucky we were:

Grainy,grainy and stringy.

Stalky,dense:grapy and radiant; kidneyish,flattish andlumpy; loose, tang-led -; he, itdid not cut in, itspoke,willingly spoke to dry eyes, before closing them.

Spoke, spoke.

Was, was.

Wewould not let go, stoodin the midst, a porous edifice, andit came.

Came at us, camethrough us, patchedinvisibly, patchedaway at the last membraneandthe world, a millicrystal,shot up, shot up.*          Shot up, shot up.                    Then -Nights, demixed.

Circles,green or blue, scarletsquares: theworld puts its inmost reservesinto the game with the newhours. - Circles,red or black, brightsquares, noflight shadow,nomeasuring table, nosmoke soul ascends or joins in.*          Ascends and                    joins in -At owl's flight, nearthe petrified scabs,nearour fled hands, inthe latest rejection,abovethe rifle-range nearthe buried wall:visible, oncemore: thegrooves, thechoirs, at that time, thepsalms.

Ho, ho-sannah.

Sothere are temples yet.

Astarprobably still has light.

Nothing,nothing is lost.

Ho-sannah.

At owl's flight, here,the conversations, day-grey,of the water-level traces.*          (--day-grey,                    of                        the water-level traces - Driven into theterrainwiththe unmistakabletrack:

Grass,grass,written asunder.)