Have you tasted the bitterness of tears of despair?
Have you watched the sun sink through such pale, balmless air
that your soul sought its shell like a crab on a beach,
then scuttled inside to be safe, out of reach?
Might I lift you tonight from earth’s wreckage and damage
On these waves gently rising to pay the moon homage?
Or better, perhaps, let me say that I, too,
have dreamed of infinity . . . windswept and blue.
Michael R. Burch is the editor of The HyperTexts, on-line at www.thehypertexts.com. His poetry has been translated into fourteen languages, set to music by eleven composers, used in collaborations with visual artists, and taught in high schools and universities. A five-time Pushcart nominee, his poems, translations, letters, articles, essays, jokes and puns have been published by BBC Radio 3, The Hindu, Reader's Digest, TIME, USA Today, The Washington Post,Writer’s Digest—The Year’s Best Writing, and hundreds of literary journals.