Polemos

I agree wholly with what you say.
When clouds and words are pulled assunder
The air trembles and the cosoms is fragmented.
While intent goes unexamined
No thoroughfare will be discovered.
India was dust, a leopard in the boulder's shade.
I came to the edge of the city
And it was white in the sunlight.

Landscapes are absurd until obeyed.
Salaamed, licked his lips and pressed them to the dust.
He is the valley and the valley is his.
But I will deny to the death your right to say it.

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