Who were you?
A foreigner
a mere woman?
Perhaps I valued you
beyond the common measure
I think of the possibility
of lives we have lived
in some past time
some other world
I guess I am a Buddhist
after all.
Because
this fascination
this love
goes beyond my experience
What can I compare it to?
I believe in the potency of desire
that it can manifest itself
across a span of years
a span of lifetimes
I can imagine
that we were
then as now
different in appearance
from cultures widely separated
Let's say that I wanted you
that you wanted me
for so it is today
Let's say that circumstances
kept us apart
or prevented us from meeting
as equals
Let us say, finally,
that this world
in which anything seems to be permitted
was created for us
that we might meet again.
What an absurd
romantic notion!
Tonight the lights are all on.
Other beings surround me.
This world is a different world
for each one of them,
though strangely the same.
Surely this world is ours.
The lights
are brightly lit.
Thousands of insects
cover the glass
dazzled by this light.
We must be dazzled, as well.
For none of us can see.
Not a one of us
can touch the heart
of another.
So since all is permitted
let us permit ourselves this
that we can touch one another
each into each.