CRYPTOGRAMS

In the hinterland of time

words turn into ciphers

chiselled on walls

or in your breast.

Words morph into ambiguous portents

which no dictionaries

nor experts in algebra could decipher.

And words will collapse

in a complex cluster of cryptograms,

words fall rapidly like tufts of hair

or decayed teeth.

You would search vainly in the dislodged mass,

seeking to analyze signals

and sift the prevailing message

that confines the key secret of your life

covered in mould,

trying to inhale a faithless breath.

Mario Azzopardi