I lost a lifetime
walking always on the road's middle
between the two ways
following the line drawn with white paint
with a straight back and a forward look
as if I were carrying a basket on my head
with a sleeping bird in it

maybe it would have been better
if life hooked me by the scruff
to shake me completely
like some people seize newborn puppies
keeping them head under water
in a bucket filled by rain

but I walked farther
fearing the bird would fly away
from the top of my head
far from the city the country the planet
deep in the night behind my back
where over someone's heart weighs
the total eclipse of the earth