Empathy

Sifting through the fog,
Deeper and deeper yet.
Like the falling snow,
Not knowing where to go.

Dried rivers burning the land,
Heat of the wounded light.
Life raging past in silent fervour.
And you, the mute beholder in chains.

Old faces ask you where you come from.
Past walls and shelters you stumble forth.
Not knowing the answer,
Not comprehending the question.

You trace the diagram of the fire,
Bones rattling in the bitterness of nothing.
Cutting out the language of memory,
The limits of a story you wish to forget.

Your hunger reaches the water's edge.
You lean in and gaze at the tremulous mirror.
Staring into the dark, two unsmiling pits of emptiness.
The grave of your eyes, the death of the "I".