SOURCES OF INSOMNIA I Poem by Maurice Gilliams

She carried the lamp behind the water lilies.
The midnight dawn gnaws through
the high chamber where Maria sleeps,
as I long for water and for lilies.

I lie beside her. She rests with me. And none
of us are in this world jointly,
for nothing is here for elsewhere joined
where no desire tears one and the other asunder.

The wall becomes mirror of the army of stars.
The silence swells with fish. In the algae
grate the saline crystals of old sores.

Will I remain then in the watery grave
while the phantom ship sails on forever?
- But when Maria sighs, I take her hand.