The Desert (Part 1)

[Verse: Diamanda Galás] My era tells me bluntly: You do not belong I answer bluntly: I do not belong I try to understand you Now I am a shadow Lost in the forest Of a skull I′m on my feet, the wall is a fence — The distance shrinks, a window recedes Daylight is a thread Snipped by my lungs to stitch the evening All I said about my life and death Recurs in the silence Of the stone under my head Am I full of contradictions? That is correct Now I am a plant. Yesterday, when I was between fire And water I was a harvest Now I am a rose and live coal Now I am the sun and the shadow I am not a god Am I full of contradictions? That is correct... The moon always wears A stone helmet To fight its own shadows The door of my house is closed Darkness is a blanket: A pale moon comes with A handful of light My words fall To convey my gratitude The killing has changed the city's shape — This rock Is bone This smoke people breathing We no longer meet Rejection and exile keep us apart The promises are dead, space is dead Death alone has become our meeting point He shuts the door Not to trap his joy But to free his grief A newscast About a woman in love Being killed About a boy being kidnapped And a policeman growing into a wall Whatever comes it will be old So take with you anything other than this madness — get ready To stay a stranger They found people in sacks: One without a head One without a tongue or hands One squashed The rest without names Have you gone mad? Please Do not write about these things You will see Say his name Say I painted his face Stretch your hand to him Or walk like any man Or smile Or say I was once sad You will see There is no homeland There may come a time when you′ll be Accepted to live deaf and dumb, and perhaps They'll let you mumble: death Life, resurrection — And peace be upon you He wears Jihad uniform, struts in a mantle of ideas A merchant — he does not sell clothes, he sells people They took him to a ditch and burnt him He was not a murderer, he was a boy He was not He was a voice Vibrating, scaling the steps of space And now he's fluting in the air Darkness The earth′s trees have become tears on heaven′s cheeks An eclipse in this place Death snapped the city's branch and the friends departed You do not die because you are created or because you have a body You die because you are the face of the future The flower that tempted the wind to carry its perfume Died yesterday The sun no longer rises It covers its feet with straw And slips away