From Nothing

From nothing. From scratch. From the beginning.
Begin from the beginning. Every single time but now again
more purely from the beginning. Those empty palms!
A scrutiny of your end and your beginning
in the grey light, in the suburbs of darkness . . .
Sit and wait with your shoes on. Ready
not for a leap but for the first step.
A smoothed out state . . . A condition
where nothing is yours. Those empty palms
have cost you much. And this is your gain.

  —Ella Hillbäck, translated by Robin Fulton