Marking circles

Marking circles

We watch the hands of the clock

Always impatient

We mark off the calendar

And day after day

As the students come and go

And the night follows the day

And one season slowly turns into the next

And thick winter clothes are shed

To expose the skin beneath

As we mop and clean our floors

Scrub and hang our dirty clothes

As we cook and eat our food

As we kill the insects that invade our house

And the rats that forage just beyond our threshold

As the cicadas emerge from the ground

As we build our fires

And replace our melted candles

As we drink our bears

And heat our hot water for coffee

And the ladybugs metamorphose

And the dead plumb branches of winter

Suddenly turning lithe and green

Laden with beautiful blossoms

We suffer the commands of the calendar

Always under control by the clock

We count the days left of our service

And so wrapped up are we

With the business of waiting

That we forgot at times the processes of living

From one moment to the next

From one word, one deed, one feeling

To the next

Our only escape

To become always lost in our hopes and daydreams

Creating a fantasy world

With wishes and illusions

The Great Wall Revisited

Trails in the Snow

1991-1993