Nightingale Floor

Walking on the nightingale floor
Again
The dance of a suitor
To a music of creaks
That may be the particular serenade
Which opens this fortress
To Spring.

Behind fortifications:
Palaces

Within palaces:
Gardens

Inside gardens:
Rendezvous
Collocation
And selves without boundary.

Within fortifications:
Archers and arrows

Inside arrows:
Poisons – bitter

Behind bitterness:
Displacement
Distance
The capacity of the void.

But risk all this
For the palatial gardens
And for rendezvous
Collocation
And selves without boundary.

Make a music
From these creaks
Eye me between the paper shutters
And call off your guards.


James Piers Taylor, 24th September 2006, Essex



IMAGE: Himeji-Jo (Himeji Castle Evening - the Enthronement Edition) (1926) by Yoshida Hiroshi.

NOTE: Nightingale floors, or uguisubari, were floors designed to make a chirping sound when walked upon. These floors were used in the hallways of some temples and palaces. The squeaking floors were used as a security device, assuring that none could sneak through the corridors undetected. (definition lifted from Wikipedia).