Literature of the Supernational

First, figure out what you can’t avoid.
Then practice transferring desire.
Practice wishing for what you can’t miss.

Imagine a repatriation
That does not involve your own country,
Finally sent home to the unknown.

Imagine you’re from a hot country
Where hearth-side winters seemed fanciful.
Now you’re Canadian? Pray for snow.

Compose an elaborate novel
Full of patriots, never at peace.
Hunger for them to reach a blank end.

Compose a prayer, a hymn as heartfelt
As you can make it. Fill it with praise.
Translate it in your enemy’s tongue.

Be a good romantic. Find ruins,
Preferably recently abandoned,
Burned out or bombed. Yearn to sleep in them.

Be a good Roman. When all hope’s lost,
Declaim stoically, No life is short
While there’s time left to find death.