Under the Elderberry Tree
 1
The Songbird
 
I cannot imagine
Life without poetry
Making a birdsong.
The songbird
Disturbs everything.
 
Better to be dead
Than alive among cherry blossom
That does not move us.
 
I am not with you long.
Enjoy me
As I turn into cherry blossom.
 
*
 
Before I go
I want to say
Why I loved life.
 
It was because
Without a doubt
It was possible to love.
 
Gone from the world, I go
A cipher, a sign
Of happiness.

© Sebastian Barker,
The Land of Gold, Enitharmon Press, 2014

Read by Hilary Davis at The Room in 2017