Darkness

(Hammill)

Day dawns dark, it now numbers infinity.

Life crawls from the past, watching in wonder

I trace its patterns in me.

Tomorrow's tomorrow is birth again.

Boats burn the bridge in the fens;

the time of the past returns to my life

and uses it.

Don't blame me for the letters that may form in the sand;

don't look in my eyes, you may see all the numbers

that stretch in my sky and colour my hand.

Don't say that I'm wrong in imagining

that the voice of my life cannot sing.

Fate enters and talks in old words:

They amuse it.

The hands shine darkly and white: only in dark they

appear.

Bless the baby born today,

flying in pitch, flying on fear.

They shine in my eyes and touch my face

where I have seen them placed before;

don't blame me, please, for the fate that falls:

I did not choose it.

I did not, no no, I did not

I truly did not choose it.