RISE

1.

There whispered through
M words as
deserved as block ice.

More swift
than a weaver’s shuttle.

Nothing can excuse the truth.

2.

“I have no friends.

The day has come to
inhabit
a forgotten cemetery.

The first chapter of
my death is
to live under the shadow.”

3.

“A grave never seen.

A mission unfulfilled.

I must follow
day and night into chaos.

Adrift. Abandoned. Slipping
past.”

4.

“With the disguise
of St. Or,

in a country foreign
to me, I became

the companion of
the governor

and had the key to his office.”

5.

“He is defeated, the man
whose bread
I had eaten. I am

scarcely able to speak.

There is a secret to
this rock
of the frozen seas.”

6.

“Sulphur mines are
full of anxious
labor.

I know there
is, in me, a woeful
lantern,

the ripening bloom
close to my heart.”

7.

“If only
the smoky fears would
come,

like
a hand on my head, to
forgive me.

There are
no obligations among
those who love.”

8.

“No rest. No sleep.
Never.”

Here there was a break.

A whaler
wrecked near the mouth of
some basaltic caves,

crew and
passengers broken.