The Room of Darkness

la nuit seule dans ma voix 

— Jean Senac

I am from darkness,
my homeland is an aging butterfly
my prayers are the desert.

*

I wash in rain’s spit,
in my prayers the sun
dances tip-toe.

*

My god on the brink of a death.
He the echo’s infra-violet.
He is a storm
that loves to talk.

*

I was born with a genetic defect,
one of twins: I
and solitude.
I shall give you all a sad heart,
a burst eye, a foot
with twenty toes
and other limbs left me
by my friend Time.

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