Lighthouses for driftwood
what if night was a curtain
you should have pulled it aside
a way long time ago
perhaps, you can see out without your glasses
a universe of a world untouchable
even the moon needs to sleep
maybe that’s why there’s a dark side
we never get to see
so much of uncertain slumber
stories
imaginations
endless as any telescope reaching beyond 10 million times the eyes can see
nightmares are for awoken ones it seems
footsteps sliding
roots of your language
bile est sonum custodiunt reverberations in speculo
et somnia pro vobis
what if you swam across the oceans
any of them
passing all ships
who can’t see you
other than a storiless driftwood
plastic ready to choke you
the artificial intelligence of the seas
you becoming a modern statistic
hardly a casualty
just an earful for the fish
to hear a soloist adagio heart stop
but it’s in dreams
you look for answers
you’re awake somewhere there
somewhere you are awake
awake you are somewhere
are you somewhere awake
or are you just somewhere
everything is a garden
everything is a relationship
everything is a poem
everything says something
everything brings you to silence
everything has light
even when you can’t see
you look to make sense
of what
of it all
what is it
what is all
it is what
is it
what
even in the darkness there is light
there is no darkness in light
there windows need washing
clearly
the world looks different
Choir of one
Some days you can’t people
so you rediscover music
to hear your own heart beat
mostly thumping
mostly
romance flows
eyes closed on the pillow
volumes slightly higher
you tune out
to tune in
invisible
singing in the back row
the choir
nobody knows you’re there
that’s the point
some days you don’t people
breathing
for yourself
a blossom erupts
your body the garden
the reconciliation
all is your brother
waiting for the campfire songs
layering the waves of sound
till then
people don’t people
Pavel Sfera is a refugee from the former Yugoslavia.