TOMAl SALAMUN
Things
VII.
I shall draw a cross
t
s-bends on my rocking chair
how sadly hangs a shirt
after a body has left it
but it is still a shirt
and that's where the key point of our defeat lies
and a suitcase and a ruler
have you ever seen a chair
running from a bathroom to a kitchen
or the opposite direction it's all the same
asking hysterically
what will happen to my after-death life
have you ever seen a balcony rail
saying I've had it
I've had it
I've had it
I too love my small life
I too have to get something out of it
and if you ever walked on glagoljashka street
and saw between the house number 4
and a fountain an old boot lying
there since the year
when the last night regattas were held and Mario won
did the boot ask you
good day and pardon me
for bothering you here on the street
but don't you think
but don't you think
but don't you think
Incomprehensible are things in their cunning
inaccessible to the fury of the living
invulnerable in their incessant flow
you never catch up with them
you never seize them
motionless in their gazing
Translated from the Slovene
by
Sonja Kravanja
