---
title: Finding the Lion
genre: verse

project:
    title: Autocento of the breakfast table
    css: autocento
...

Tonight, as I look up, the stars \
hide themselves in shame.  There is no moon.  \
The sky is black, like my desk,

nothing like a raven.  The streetlights \
look on the scene disinterested.  \
They have their own small gossips of the dark.

I came here to find the Lion, old \
friend, but he will not show his flanks, his \
paws, his shoulders, his mane.  I

can hear him laughing from his hiding-place \
behind the moon, nonexistent, under \
the cold dead earth.  The mountain is in front

of me now, a hole of stars daring me \
to pierce it with my sight.  The lion's still \
laughing; the streetlamps talk about

me amongst themselves, and go out.  There \
never was any lion, they tell me.  \
You only hear the wind on the mountain.