NOT FOR THE SHEPHERD

(For the childhood of animal fables)

The shepherd arrived

At the cave entrance

In search of the lost lamb.

There, ancestors lay interred

In immemorial urns.

Metals shards and stone pieces

Lay scattered,

Marking ages -

He discovers nothing.

Footprints of the tiger

That went inside

Had torn his heart.

Would the sharp fangs

Have pierced the tender flesh?

Beyond the darkness of

Primordial monuments,

Sleep-walking through

The smell of antiquity,

In the magic mirror of prayers

He beholds it thus:

Beyond the heart of darkness

In the green planes of morning rays,

A blind-man’s buff on.

May he not wake up

Into the dampness of clotted blood !.

What's better for the shepherd

To behold

If not the tiger and the lamb

Gamboling together !