“Does the eagle know what is in the pit?
Or wilt thou go ask the mole:
Can wisdom be put in a silver rod?
Or love in a golden bowl?”
-Thel’s Motto
William Blake
I.
What lies within the pit
I ask
as you near the edge
back here
I’m scared to look
at your smile
a fire
that swells
II.
What lies within
the chambers
of your body
pull me up through the
river
I’m choking on your
last breath
above
the ledge
III.
What lies within
the passage of your
lungs
I’m drawn to your words
submerged in
diction
hang myself
on the end of your
lines
IV.
What lies within
the music you make
as we fall
through the air
it’s thicker than
I thought
wrap me in a net
of unconditional
gold
V.
What lies within
the confines of your
gaze
we lost a whisper
of hair in
canvas skies
I’m trying
to bleed
clear now
VI.
What lies within
the darkness here
I said to
a whore
with frozen veins
chisel these out
so you
glimpse
the warmth
VII.
The Eagle asked
if you saw my
heart the false beat
of ashen flakes
rip into me
a cavern
seeping lies
down
stream
VIII.
I followed the mole
through depths of
air you exhaled
mountains
above my head
our words
are lost in
ripples of
stone
IX.
I saw you with
a silver rod
broken lines
stained in
breeze
like ash
across
my chest
X.
I lost sight
of time
when you left
here in the
pit
blood forcing
cracks in
the
golden bowl
Poem by Shea Lynch
Read in Italian: