the water so green
the cloud so white
the sky so blue

no rambling tour guides
no scattered ruins

here
every blade of grass
every blooming flower
every towering tree
is original
and pure

here
nothing is ugly or even unattractive
everywhere is bright and transparent
there's no place to hide

Bitter cold
no flames of war
can warm

Shielding an old man
from the streaming bullets
the dying tree
watches with pity
a dying man
chop down
one of its blackened limbs
stagger
and drag it
into another ash dark night

now that autumn is here
it's hard to avoid
biting insects and pecking birds

but he finds it impossible to moan
no sooner has a wound opened up
than it's filled with sweet juice

bloated by famine in Ethiopia
the stomach must now digest
a TV commercial
of delicious cat food
cholesterol free

Beating gongs and drums

they celebrate light
in a world
where black
is white

I don’t care what the weatherman says
this is a promising morning

here and there
I see piercing birdcalls
making slits
long and short, wide and narrow
on the black sky
to let light in

now
your mouths must stay away
from this big bowl
and go to the ocean
to assume your own responsibility

or to another shore
to make lots of money
that will stuff up your pockets
and your souls
and let your heads stay forever in the hothouse
so well-fed and well-clad
that you won't have to think of today
or tomorrow

*Before an experiment on dolphin communication with humans was terminated,  scientists had to train the two dolphins that were used in the experiment so that they could survive in the ocean.