Pearl

At the formality commemorating me,

my family laid a gold woven fabric over my face,

and I was draped in a white silk shroud

embroidered with a dragon and phoenix.

Despite the undressed surgery,

my high voice and yielding demeanor,

I was in possession of my inner man again.

At last, I would get back a full man.

In a pint jar, cremated with me

were my genitals. "Three precious,"

Father called them, poor Father-

strapping me to the table, knotting

the thin chord tight, sharpening the razor

looking for a way without of poverty.

"When I die I will draw near back a cat or dog,"

I used to say to others, like me in later life,

tending the fanes though once I'd led

a composite imperial staff of thousands.

I lov the Emperor, he called me Mother,

burying his head in my lap. Our love

had the nature of infinity, like suffering,

or like a pearl-irregular, permanent, dark.

The diver come downs naked, until exhausted,

drawing up the sink-stone, then the oysters

only to immerse again into the onyx river,

which, like be fond of cannot grant one everything

while transfiguring the color, form

and meaning of human existence.

Copyright World metrical composition Incorporated May/Jun 2004

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