On the lips of history

Those whose trajectory
traverses the palm grove of names
Those whose soul's reflection
gushes out of the scorching cold
Those whose gaze is turned
towards the dead in memory
Those ones shall founder in a profound slumber
and shall dream of a blue shade
spreading over the horizon of the hand
like a sea harvested by the solid earth
from a distant Eden.
 
 

The man in profile

  To Peter Wood

He is a man
who each night sleeps alone
who each day lives alone
he dreams as he eats
he drinks as he does his shopping
as others shut their windows
in the face of night.

This is a man
who without any doubt
attends to life's obligations!
 
 

The vanishing point of man

The river shall flow
and those ones shall then take
without being seen
the antidote and the absences,
it shall flow
and with it whole worlds
with blue claws
and strong features
with yawnings
and with sparkling deaths
that inundate the earth,
it shall flow
and flow again,
and with it a land
that stays silent
so that the tyrant's cattle
may quench their thirst.
 
 

17 January 1991

I lend an ear to the blood 
to the dust of Mahomet
with his two arms open wide
I lend an ear to the helicopters' rotors
whispering during the tempest of sleep
to those souls already dead
                             in the pilots' heads --

I lend an ear to a bridge
that lies down with the trembling waters
at every warning siren
borne by a flock of stars
towards the circus of memories
 

Every sea has a boat to immobilise it

For Pierre Peuchmaurd

We were children in search of happiness
happiness in search of children
we were the antithesis of a world
a lightless world
a slopeless mountain
we were a golden fleece
the mob couldn't reach
we were the voice
and the poem
the morning 
and the light
the head
and the practice before the game
we were the white-haired revolver
in the worker's hand
while the bullet 
was down there
in the heart
fumbling
between the lines
for words.

We were howling
like a hurricane wind
settling the score
that History will beam
from the exquisite corpse
and shower
over our graveyard.