Your Name On White Snow

Your Name On White Snow
© Surazeus
2018 07 01

The old blind woman in the mountain cottage
dips the sharpened feather quill of the owl
in the blood of her husband who just died
and writes song of her love on their bedsheet.

"I wrote the hope of your name on white snow
but heat of the sun melted it away.
I wrote the truth of your name on my heart
where it glows bright forever like the moon."

I open the door and step in her gloom
that squishes under the heels of my boots
which leave seeds of herbs that grow in her heart,
curling tendrils that weave our souls in one.

I gaze at the mirror mask of her face,
amazed at vast size of the universe,
since she gives me new eyes to replace mine
smudged when I gazed into abyss of death.

I wait ten thousand years in pale starlight
that gleams through cracks of the river-smoothed stones
while she molds new body to hold my soul,
then writes my secret name under my skin.

I had to walk ten thousand miles of roads
across the waste land, sea to shining sea,
before I could read the name she designed,
written clear as rain in veins of my flesh.

Where can I find young woman just like her
so I can write her true name on my heart
and listen to her voice sing in the wind
and see the universe glow in her eyes?

While I sit alone by the mountain lake,
carving song of love on tablet of ice,
ten billion people die in brutal wars,
and their blood soaks in the soil of the Earth.

Little mushrooms with human faces sprout
from rotting heart of our indifferent world,
then drink wine and dance around the bonfire
while goat man plays haunting tunes on panpipes.

At silver twilight by the shining lake
I sit alone among old apple trees
and wonder how light from the setting sun
weaves such strange joy into my aching heart.

While I fade in and out of consciousness,
small flame of awareness floating in dreams,
I sense she stands beside me, so I turn
to smile and hold her hand, but she dissolves.

Now that I know the secret of your soul
I will write your name on white snow of time
and become the river flowing in you,
so at last we sing harmony of love.