Proteus and Ariel

‘It had nothing to do with me, but I couldn’t help wondering what it would be like, being burned alive all along your nerves.’ I. The Disposal of the Inconvenient Silence does not come down these days, Calling to us but failing to be heard, Above the sound of complications, The unwelcome thoughts of mortality, Knocking gently on the brain, Like beetles digging in the grain of wood, And we are conscious of all this, But do not acknowledge rain, The spring rain that displaces snow, We used to ski down the mountains, And in town we would sit with coffee, In the shadow of the Zugspitze, Waiting for later seasons to move the sun, Turning the entire world into the face, Of our own star, our own green world, And melt the snow into the Partnach Gorge, Down into the plains of industry and trade, And your eyes were the last thing I saw, Fading into the dusk as the night took on, We were wet with the cold of summer, And you had flowers in your hair, I scolded you for stealing them, Perhaps it w...