Garry Thomas Morse - from After Jack

Guzzle of the Blackberry Sleep

translation for The Railway


 
I want to sleep the sleep of black
berries by the resonance of dead railways
I want to sleep the sleep of that imperfect
aria, to leave that dark note upon lips
 
Do not say the dead are not bruised
that still they thirst for light & water
Do not say you have given yourself
for a single taste of obsidian sleep
 
I want to sleep only for a moment
a moment, a minute, a century
Yet say I have not died
that I live among brambles
that I devour rain & dust
that I am a shadow of sleep
 
Then kiss me carefully with your dark lips
Then squeeze me to death with your fists
but taste me for the itinerary of eternity
but taste me for the itinerary of eternity
 
Since I want to sleep the sleep of black
berries by the resonance of dead railways
since I want to live the death of every
perception, to gleam among thorns