Friend Time

Not at the foot of a shrine, not at the foot of an idol; at your feet I have knelt, drop by drop I rain. Will you accept my heart’s praises? Will you accept the caresses of my tears on the wounds of time’s axes, on your cypress stature? I too am time! Look. Believe it. Will you accept my time? Utterly unlike the time of the axe. Do you see my seconds? Wholly desire, wholly kiss, wholly unlike the seconds of the axe. Thornless, look! I am thornless: kneeling at your feet I twine around your body, leaf by leaf, with tears of love, with the time of the ivy grown from the earth of life in the shelter of your cypress stature...