Lakshanas

 

Lacrimae rerum, the tears in things.

The lakshanas, those signs that stamp

our life in this world

 

that brand and score and mar

conditioned existence,

those things that are.

 

The lakshanas,

those marks, those shawls

of rain and moving lights and tears

 

that veil this world, reveal this world

in pain and change and rain-soaked boundaries,

the lacrimae

 

the tears that tear

holes in the veils that all things wear.

Lacrimae rerum, spangling

 

the city’s brown-purple spaces with topaz jewels and stars.

The lakshanas, those walls of the world.

 

…..

 

In the walls of this world the doorways,

unguessed-at, unlocked, unhidden.

 

…..

 

Behind the smallest, furthest raindrop,

between the streetlights and inside each tear,

the doors to freedom, the wishless signless emptiness

 

brimming with everything, with everything there is.

 

Clair Mullineaux