Says the Body and Soul

I. Says the Soul

as you watch through glass
the leaf’s shadow
dapple & weave the sun—-you do not doubt the breeze
exists — and so

I am—-and so—-I was and ever
shall be—-the breath—-before the word

is even thought

II. Says the Body

when the wind blows the ground barren
through the day and the night, there shall come an hour
when the last drop dries in the reservoir
leaving me in the world where
only one thing matters: the dry depth of my
useless thoughts
and how to learn to drink
from the emptiness of the thoughts themselves

Note: Section II is a Golden Shovel after Octavio Paz