Thought
      Fluttering
among these words
                  They are
your footsteps in the next room
the birds that return
The nem tree that protects us
                        protects them
Its branches mute thunder
douse lightning
In its foliage the drought drinks water
They are
       this night
             (this music)
Watch it flow
         between your breasts
falling on your belly
                 white and black
nocturnal spring
                 jasmine and crow's wing
tabla and sitar
           No and Yes
together
     two syllables in love
If the world is real
                  the word is unreal
If it is real the word
                    the world
is the cleft the splendor the whirl
No
   the disappearances and the appearances
                                       Yes
the tree of names
              Real unreal
are words
       air they are nothing
Speech
    unreal
makes silence real

       Being still
is a strand of language
                    Silence
seal
   scintilla
            on the forehead
on the lips
          before it evaporates
Appearances and disappearances
Reality and its resurrections
Silence rests in speech