[Kzyxtalk] SONG OF THE YOUXIA

[John Sakowicz]

SONG OF THE YOUXIA 




I looked for your face in the mirror at the bottom of the Sunset Pool. 

In the Hall of the Immortals, I called out your name. 

The five planets swept the earth on my behalf, looking for you. 

Sun and moon pierced my gloom, but only momentarily. 

The fragile orchids could not bear my despair, and so they died. 

Butterflies? They fluttered and dropped from the gloomy pines. 

And so, I dared not enter the Forbidden City. The palace empty. Its stone forever cold and hard. 

Without you, I was nothing. Without you, I was a young man who dared not cry the heaven-borne tears that filled me. Without you, I was an old man who could not die. 

My hair white. My face haggard. 

I was a useless, empty, tranced being from many years of roaming, searching, searching for you in vain. 

But one night, in a dream, you came to me. 

You found me. 

You said what I have always known but would not believe. 

"You are the Youxia," you said, "condemned to be a wandering knight always." 

" I am the Empress," you said. 

You continued. 

"The search for love is loveless. The search for meaning is meaningless." 

"But what matters, and what matters only, is that we have found our way here to the spirit-realm." 

"The spirit-realm." 

"We lie together in an abandoned pagoda under an eclipse. A white tiger crouches near us. Music rises to the dark sky. Fragrance from throats of jasmine fills the spring mist." 

"We are young again," you said, and then was silent. 

I answered. 

"I roll up the mat from my bed, Empress. I leave the world of fools now, never to return." 

"I am without shape or shadow. I am your lover in the spirit -realm. Only that man." 

"I bend my bow. " 











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