(Following Neruda)


Is there anything more naked
Than a book’s cover?

Did we discover the cinema
In sleep’s auditorium?

If the first god was an animal
Will the last be a robot?

Will the west ever make peace
With the rest?

Why does the Statue of Liberty
Look away from America?

What do we call an era
Where wars are picnics?

Between a tree and a building
Which will breathe the longest?

Do cities know the price
Of losing interest in the moon?

Is there anything more ironic
Than a vegetarian butcher?

When oh when shall we celebrate
The death of nations?

Do policemen sleep
Dreaming of uniforms?

Is the rose more vulnerable
Than the heart?

Where is the shore
That washes off memory?

What is every face hiding
At funerals?

Ever wondered what rejections
Did to Hitler, Stalin?

What will the birds of Palestine
Tell the owl of Minerva?

Can you construct a man
From his library?

Isn’t the clearing of forests
Denuding us?

Will we ever learn desire
From the clouds?