1. He walked on a path strewn with folly’s rubble
Each cubit harbored a primitive devil

2. He staggered on as though
Battered by winds in a strait of torment

3. Between his flanks a fugitive, wounded
Escaping the grip of death, a martyr laid low

4. His steps faltered on the terrified gravel
On the trunk of a stricken tree

5. On a curve or street
Of bloody memories and wrecked hopes’ vestiges

6. “Where to?” asked whoever understood
What’s before me is lost as what’s behind

7. To endless roaming
In endless mazes, lacking all origin

8. I walk in tattered shoes and smell
My blood in the winds’ restless swell

9. Who will shelter me? Will any house
Hear my call or know where I cringe or cower?

10. The corridors are caves with lurking
Beasts and bewildered deer darting

11. Out there are stars, sightless crows crossing
An endless, leaden cloud

12. Its shadow, squinting to find my trace
Who came near? Like a phantom he faded

13. Behind imaginings’ gossamer veil
Beyond the hill, the thicket murmured

14. With mysteries, caves and watchful eyes
That shone like mirrors in faces

15. Of ash and resignation
A crowd without name or feature

16. Behind them a mirror of gaudy veneer
Who sees? What throng and confusion!

17. They incline toward hollow pageantry
Without provision or path he walked

18. Like rainless, arid, wandering specters
Sorrows fluttered in his eyelids

19. And crowded like winter birds
He asked the darkness about his withered

20. Face and a gate aglow with light
About a summery hand’s touch, a window

21. Sill’s stone, a rhythmic song’s pulse
His star lingered, bestowing

22. On its lid the trace of an autumnal cloak
That filled it utterly as he donned

23. The genuine serenity of its sky’s expanse
And the lightning’s glow that flickered behind

24. A thousand worlds of flowing font
Obliviously he neared his hut

25. Like a drowned man returned from nothingness
He felt the door bend around him

26. With longing’s support and tears’ embrace
Where is one to ask and be told

27. Of his tragedies, to condole or foil?
A house bowed over him, its ceiling

28. Ice and walls the hue of evening
As a mother snatched up her lost babe

29. Seeking the meanest crust or gruel
He grabbed at silence for an appeal, a hand,

30. A mouth loosening or returning the call
He turned to the martyrs or toward

31. Their shade wrapped in women’s gowns
A goblet was brought to him

32. Of smoke? An embrace of gossamer?
His breath sipped at a barren dusk

33. That drained all color from the air
Is there for the wayward wind or a tryst?

34. Warmth in this meeting place?
Returned from smoky waste to settlement?

35. More desolate than the starless night!
Tomorrow the miles stretch out

36. Where they left off, never to halt
Crossing from maze to maze without

37. Yearning for journeys or promise to bend
Without memory or comforting dream

38. Without earth or sky’s shade
His life a vortex of mercury

39. Pillow and path only folly’s rubble