i can think of you now
without loss
after flowers have withered

without asking
why people, if they have any direction,
always go toward separation

why, after the sun sets
passing time cannot bring back
our childlike foolish days

like the first blade of grass
turning barren land
into green fields

even though you should have told me
long ago, that where there are no gods,
there is no temple

finally i can think of you, no longer
star bedazzled nor resplendent
not in a beautiful dream or a dream of beauty

finally the pain is only a memory of pain
like the mirror of a lake
after a stone falls and the ripples have subsided