let me be

let me be shattered (blessed)
with a rare name that suggests
a obscure six-steps-removed European background.

A name that suggests the journey's not over yet.

I wish I hadn't been born
but rainfallen, or snowed into this world.
Or decanted, like a vintage wine.
Oh, a world begot by oaken gods with terroir!
That'd be something.
Evenings that last for years, drinking
in vernaculars forgotten long ago.

The everlasting fire requires a fluent translator,
well versed in several seas,
unfamiliar and inescapable in equal measures
- total awareness,
a sacred internal logic,
a simple dish that tastes better
when swept away.

And yet heavily terrified we will all depart
with an icy whimper,
like a stranger on a merciless night.

But no! stay defiant
against whatever versions of these bottomless outsiders you meet.
Remain master of your selves,
hose away those confessional attritions
in the athletic nights of insomnia.

Oh earthly minion thus (dis)placed,
you can be sure the singing
will be beautiful.