Desert within,
old as desert without. 

The man on the pillar
wearing the sack  

and the woman chained  
high in the tree 

are characters
in the same story: 

world breaks
because we break it. 

We break it
because we are broken. 

And the tools we make
are tools for breaking. 

Some look to birds.
Others, the stones. 

Everywhere the look goes
it goes alone.   

Say You are. It is.
Say we were, we will.  

What’s said is a saying,
that’s all one can say. 

This too is known:
that voice is a making.