Wednesday Poem

Are You There

Are you here?
I don’t know, Unnamed, I don’t know.
Look at me.
Look at me.
When you like.
When I die.
When it shines.
When my body is extinguished.
When I breathe.
When I go.
I didn’t write like this yet.
I don’t know what will happen.
I see stars.
Does it spin round?
I don’t know what spins round.
Can one hear?
I’m out of the cup.
I eat bran.
You found the cap.
I put on pajamas.
Everything goes into me.
I glued myself.
I write slowly.
You are, what I see.
When I’ll breathe, I’ll die.
The reward is terrible.
I have everything.
There’re lumberjacks.
The hour came.
There’re apricots.
I hear touches.
There’s a lock.
They said.
They danced.
Give me your cap.
I breathed.
I fell asleep.
You were fast.
I was late.
I have painted.

by Tomaž Šalamun
from Ko vdre senca/When the Shadows Breaks In/Lorsque l’ombre force
publisher: Litterae Slovenicae, Ljubljana, 2010
translation: 2010, Michael Thomas Taren and Tomaž Šalamun