Sunday, July 13, 2003
by Goran Simic
I'm blind, I say
I don't speak again for a very long time
Of course I'm lying about being blind
If I look out of the window to where the children are singing carols
I see how the snow seems to fetch a rainbow
I see frozen songbirds fall from the branches
I see a butcher haul a slaughtered lamb down the street
It is night
An icon burns in the stove
There's a seamless drone from the airport that makes me want to weep
I'm blind, I say
I'm blind
She doesn't say a word
She beats the devil's tattoo on the tabletop
I've forgotten, I whisper
I don't speak again for a very long time
Of course I'm lying about having forgotten
I think back to hoofprints in the snow and dogs on a leash
It was a manhunt
I remember my father laughed when I barked at the birds
Have you ever noticed how a vacuum cleaner sounds like a plane in takeoff?
Or how a TV left on too long will fix a room with a hot and heavy smell?
Have you noticed the depth of frost?, I ask her
Have you noticed this incredible frost
at all?
She's got nothing to say for herself
She might not have heard
I won't speak again
I'll sit here and watch the traffic lights adapting endlessly
to whatever's best
That's me
I'm just like that
The whole universe buzzes above the control tower
Isn't that strange?
Fish in the depths are strange
the way they live
The smell of hay in an orchard is too strange for words
Now and then, someone winks from the bottle
The genie, the perk
of plum brandy
Can you see me?, I ask
Can you see any jot of me, any tittle?
She nods
But of course she's lying
As if I cared
As if she could understand the half of what I say
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:: Photo by National Geographic Society Copyright © 2002 ::