ineffectual fancy

when the eye opens
we forget
everything

eternity sleeps in every blink
the black of night
the clothes of death

it is easy to derive
her meaning in the shuttering
of the light

the division of life
in this way
marks out the scale she plays

the bounds of sleep
on our being
absorbed in infinity

where else could she silently lie
but beyond the blackness
when I close my eye?

show me the money

i asked her to show me where the debt was
she pointed to a small number on a piece of white paper
"that is the debt" she said
"I work for that number, ever day it gets a bit smaller
but it will never go away"

i take the piece of paper from her hand
and tear in into pieces
"there it is gone away" I said
her face was twisted like a mask at first
but then she smiled at me and I could see she was free

a breeze blew across the tops of the highest trees in the forest
but there was no more sign
that anything had really changed
except that the bindings of a slave fell away
on that day, that bankruptcy day in May