Monday, April 13, 2009

Had he known that his adventurous turn
too suddenly away from home
would tantalize him with the image of a life

perpetually lost, then he might have saw,
or in that same dream, reawakened, finally see,
unlike one acquitted by sleep, a picture

of the world without him -- better there
and friendlier the frailties, though nullifying:
what remains of criminals barely forgiven

but a guilt more guilty of than the thirst itself --
a paradise for poor men, consumed
of themselves devotedly as fruit.