Milestone 2 | Impermanence

Video

Impermanence

The first ending. And knowing it would end

I wanted another. Lover, summer,

pen with which to write it all down.

The first disappointment. Which is not

remembered but lives in the body.

And how familiar it became. To take

the same walk home or lean over ledges,

to say my own name when meeting someone.

Again and again for the last time:

the taste of salt in the afternoon.

Flowers for no one—alive and sold on the street.

What did I think was promised in being?

The way a stranger can finish you off.

Once only. And never the same

after that. After knowledge.

How people are being detained

and shot with our money.

All of which cannot prepare us for death

of which I am a student

and which is this country’s business:

the permanence of others.

Even our cruelty toward one another.

Will end. And I know

that looking at the night sky

is me looking at the past. At light

that’s long escaped and travels alone

but won’t always.

- Alex Dimitrov