1 - Erebus Unbound
From two to five, no rumbling, clanking sounds
Disturb the city's neon-lit mazes
And western sleepless men, come by airplanes,
May walk with drumming, echoing steps
And join their gaze with Erebus' empty eyes
That claim his reign from locked shop doors.
2 - Lovers
Their sweat-clad chests refreshed through open doors,
Their sheets and blankets wrinkled in mazes,
Their bare feet lightly treading lazy steps,
Bright Venus' side rests with soft sounds;
While others' threadbare dreams fleet to far plains
Or on blank sheets consume their eyes.
3 - The Storm
Day people trust their analysing eyes
Night sky's a mandala of blue mazes
Day people lock out trickling, crackling sounds,
Rain on steel crags and asphalt plains
Day people lay 'mong busts and oaken doors
While clouds flee soon with windy steps.
4 - The Girl from Afar
The narrow alleys crossed by silken steps
Are always filled by dainty sounds:
They lead you underground, through musty doors
To a maid torn from Yunnan high plains
Her head leant down, that, with attentive eyes
Sets broken shells in lacquer mazes.
5 - The Train
Dreams fly at dawn, and shun the gleaming mazes
Where travelers with sleepy eyes
Reach stark train rails and soot-wrought station steps
With care at first to avoid loud sounds
Then fast, once left and closed their tokened doors
Like ants on the bald, rusty plains.
6 - Acrostic
All that is left of the dead hours is washed plains,
Remembrance of welcoming doors
Night moisture blurring the hot, swarmed mazes
And fans inlaid with dragon eyes,
Unstained pages also, first clumsy steps
To songs to be smothered by harsh sounds.
Art's like the night: scorns plains and eyes
And dwells in mazes, where returning steps
And opening doors hide their sounds.