THE AIR WE HAVE LEFT

Beyond the hallways and windows shadowed by neglect.
Beyond the flight of spring, drowned just yesterday
in a glass of water.
Beyond our age-old melancholy (loomed
and unraveled for so long) daughter
of the great betrayals of our fathers and theirs:
we are alone.

Beyond the feeling there is nothing underneath our feet.
Beyond the narrow passageways built and tilted up by dread and doubt.
Beyond the no-man's land of History: we are alone,
without world,

the clay that covers us laid bare,
the air still left us narrow on both sides.