Clouds
Clouds played no part in this story
their shadows on the roofs brought noth ing
to
the unities of time
and space
the)' were just compass poinrs
to
someone teaching algebra to the
nigh ti nga Ies
The village was so threadbare
you could reach it by placing a ladder against a panel of sky
Threadbare the poplar
will it be the
~ame
tree translated into French
will it answer
to
a name which might not suit
its boughs accustollled
to
speak with an Arab wind
which held off autumn for a week
to
let them finish balancing the
accou nrs of thei r lea ves.
Don't turn
Don't turn the pages upside down
mv Illother would say
backwards words get dizzy
the troubled ink curdles like bad milk
The pages we leafed through came from the forest that watched us read
from the cry of the bark which spread OLlt beneath the pages' skin
We read in August's dimness
when the cosmos jettisoned its overload of stars
when the night without margins dilated all the way into night.
Translated from the French
by
Rosanna Warren
