This Is Our Universe

Let us now crawl under the canopy
Of the currant leaves
And tell stories
Let us inhabit the underworld
Let us take possession of our secret territory
Which is lit by pendant currants like candelabra
Shining red on one side
Black on the other
If we curl up close
We can sit under the canopy of the currant leaves
And watch the censers swing
This is our universe

All our moments strung on sky wire
Ever translucent
Even my body now lets the light through
I tremble and I quiver
Like the leaf in the hedge
As I sit dangling my feet
On the edge of the bed
With a new day to break open

Alone, I often fall down into nothingness
I must push my foot stealthily
Lest I should fall off the edge
Of the world into nothingness
There is nobody here among these grey arches
And moaning pigeons
And cheerful games and tradition and emulation
All so skillfully organized
To prevent feeling alone

Where is the girl who had shaken her head
And made all the jewels
The topaz, the aquamarine
The water-coloured jewels
With sparks of fire in them, dance
Who bared her brows
And with wide-opened eyes
Drove a straight pathway over the waves

The small darkhaired girl with dreams in her basket
Her shoulder-blades meeting across her back
Like the wings of a small butterfly
This is our universe

Adapted by Misha Penton from Virginia Woolf's The Waves