Here I Am

When I am here I shall not mind
I shal merely murmur:
If no one comes and sees me here it will be all right

Here it is hard to believe that anything is free
Come let us lapse into freedom
Let all these things become less than dust
Let me not think at all ever
Let these things come closer together
Let everything be slow and soft
Let the wind blow over the roof at noon
Let everything be soft here because there is no dust
Let anything except what is coming come
That is the way I have always felt

-1927

Paul Bowles, Next to Nothing: Collected Poems 1926 - 1977, Black Sparrow Press, 1981.