MIDSUMMER NIGHT

The grass grows pathless on the empty pillow

The oracle nibbles your sullen oval face

The white-haired concubines in twos and threes

Down the window they bleach the cloaking of frogs in jade

Your porcelain skin chills the first grey light of dawn

The banana leaves pensively pause with rain

We crumble laughter while chasing the past in daze

The red dragonfly guides us through the time of maze

They say today is the longest day of the year

Today the witches burned out their blue bruises

Before the ruby bonfire flamed the witches

The last black swan feather rippled the lake

They say you gallivanted far faraway many ages ago

That your jeweled neck had a new bounty every other century

They say you meandered on the plateau and cried a red sea

That your winged steed was found in Sahara starved to a stone

Never to hum lullabies in your ears through the Greenlandic ice

Where your dolorous eyes freeze when the star falls with tail

To wake you I plundered one thousand gardens along the Tiber

I had to find the last tuberose before she drowned in amber

They say tomorrow every light beam will be sawed

They say before dawn plant the tuberose in your silk pillow

I row to the castle in our old lands to kiss your rusted swing

A white carp jumps out of the lake to splash the willow