Poem XV

I wanted

to drink from fountains

favored by elves.

I wanted

to abduct winged-footed,

swanlike nymphs of the water.

I wanted

to feed from the blush

of an ailing princess.

I wanted

to speak of the flower

and to gift the calm sky with a poem.

I wanted

Merlin’s secret

guarded on the highest mountain

by four golden dogs.

I wanted

to count the dew-like pearls

from Scheherazade’s veil.

I wanted

to wear the crown

of Louis XIV of France.

I wanted

to live in the petals

of an eternal water lily.

I wanted

to knit with magnolias

the fossil glory of an empire.

I wanted

to saturate myself of Egypts.

I wanted

to infuse my verses

with the sorrow of mourning laurels.

I wanted

to look at the nude reflection

of myself on skyless waters.

I wanted

pale moons and outrageously

hot suns around me.

I wanted

Hellenic lovers

at a clap’s distance of my desires.

I wanted

never ending evenings.

I wanted

to inhabit a thousand palaces.

I wanted to sing of Olympuses

and ethereal Walkiries.

I wanted

to forge old myths.

I wanted

to punish newness.

I wanted

to murder stories.

I wanted

to have my chest

in the stars.

I wanted

to conquer ugliness.

I wanted

to shut my eyes

to the world.

I wanted

peace.

But

it wasn’t me.