the beloved: in ancestral lands a young boy, of family cloven in country divided learns of patrimony relatives welcoming, in a foreign tongue offer nourishment alien to the palate reminisce amongst themselves of old grudges and resentments I die, you die, we all die! a song of strength and courage a threnody of strife and tears — a world apart, my house is empty not even I am here — I, the phantom whose beloved often fails to see ”oh, there you are”, she exclaims as if I had not been there the whole time — the vast emptiness of me and then looks into my eyes as if I were not utterly, unreservedly vacant and sees herself to her own delight this night we are separated by ocean two islands in a puddle, united by a drizzle of tears the night before, by foreboding in her absence, only silence rings and the grumbling of my belly the underwater screaming of koi return, my beloved, once more I’ll be your sweet nothingness and you, the abyss where I drown 6-VII-2016