From deep below the surface I see

Interpreting images of circles three

Of eels and snakes that slam the hull

Devoid of the sound of the laughing gull

Decoding the symbols

Deciphering the code

On the screen within my underwater abode

Of what I guess and what I know

With this translation from below

If I should live a million nights

A child I still will be

For time in front

Or time behind

Is all the same to me

 

And if your twilight links to mine

Our souls on the horizon will meet

For the old man in front

Or the child behind

Neither, both, repeat

 

A snake in the grass

Fenced too, alas

To brave it, not me

Though the lesson I see

That this, too, shall pass

 

Fear the rattle, fear not

The iron of dread I’ve wrought

For one thousand plus one

One thousand-two not be done

To brave the answer I’ve sought

 

Now barefoot tranquility

Spawns new ability

My body remained

In this space self-contained

My teacher always beside me

 

Exit the gate, unlocked

A fork in the road I have walked

Carrying the teacher as child

Eclipsed frown has now smiled

The rattle still feared, but not blocked

From blinding dreams of dark I see

The parts of three, plus me, I’m of

And swings of children in a tree

A hawk soars gently up above

 

I watch the children run and play

The hawk soars higher toward the west

Nighttime welcomes retired day

The children now lie down to rest

 

The hawk continues on his flight

With quiet all that’s left below

And on his own glides in the night

Through winds of dreams blown long ago