C. H. Sisson
Sillans-la-Cascade
Water falling over these rocks
Like tears
Not for myself, but for another.
Lovely hair, cascading over a brow
Troubled now. I saw her in sleep
So touching and so betrayed;
There is no enemy but the hater.
Once passed, once gone
There is no meeting but in Acheron
Where the full-fledged ghosts wait underneath
And the rock falls
Sisyphus.
What mind from under the dragon’s tooth
Sprang in these places, tightened
Between rocks, fastening with chains
The innocent contender, the wise owl
Hoots from the barn.
It is morning under a steel sky,
The horses running;
A splinter of bones and a crucifixion
Against the sky.
Do not ask why I came to this place
To find
What I am better without
Old memories, sudden as images
On the castle wall,
Armour and hard words.
This is the hour when my bones too
Are ground to powder;
The marrow snivels on to the path
And I am nowhere,
In the pool
Where the cascade falls and Acheron
Opens it gates
I saw nothing of that in my book
But the mind
Returns to it and it does not leave me.
Page(s) 4-5
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