Though not a soul is around
The lamp chimney is sooty
The wick gives off smoke
The shadows changing constantly
Cuddle and stroke
The lamp illumines this Sodom
Of figures resembling
The figures of phantoms
Strangled and trembling
While the wick flares
With purer and purer light
Serenely it brightens the stairs
And the shadows vanish from sight
The Swarm
On a sleeping woman’s face
Settled a swarm
Not changing place
Doing no harm
She lies still as if in a trance
With larva on her brow
That changes her countenance
Until it resembles a pillow
On her head like a cover
As sleep locks her tight
Disturbed only by the dam’s roar
And the reflection of twilight
The writhing larva pile
Hardens wrinkling
Its color meanwhile
Before the sun sinking
Can gild its blackened beauty
In the light that fails
Resembles remarkably
A black veil
On a pretty young lass
Who died with a lurch
In a carnival mask
On her way home from church
BIZARRE TOWN
1
Single-story structures
With antlers
Loom
Under artificial light
Embedded
In the eyes of a paper kite
The kite floats
Above the stagnant air
From smokeless chimneys
Of the town
Laid out in a horseshoe
Lined by a colonnade
Of tall horsetail
With a clock
Shaped like a cage
In which
Sleep
Dwarf condors
Their eyes fixed
On the horizon
Curved like a red thread
Around
The bamboo field
Suffused
With Indian summer
And the foam
Of a long gone
And long-dry
Dam
A single rotting post
All that remains
A gray banner
Atop it
Fluttering
2
Under the slender Gothic arch
Of a water tower
Stands
A beardless young man
Lamp in hand
In his vaulted chest
A bell
When he coughs
The bell rings
And in the town
Open
In one fell swoop
All the windows
3
A black foal
Kneels
On a white pillow
In the courtyard
Thickly covered
By steel balls
It kneels
Has trouble rising
Its forelegs
Push off
From a pink footstool
And it hurdles
A wall overgrown with artichokes
4
Leaning on an umbrella
The toe
Of her left
Lightly lifted foot
In a green slipper
A girl
In furs
Gazes intently
At a window
Showing a film
With her
In the role
Of the vagabond
Performer
Who climbs
A rope ladder
On a slanted wall
Six floors up
And extinguishes
With a rubber hose
Spurting water
A hose clutched in her hand
Covered in a lace glove
A burning house
From whose garret
Engulfed in flames
An Angora cat
Leaps
5
An old man
With a brown barrel
Wrapped
Around his waist
Sits
In a hearse
On a red upholstered chair
Among rats
Arranged
By size
Sitting up
On their hind legs
6
In a cramped hallway
Covered with tiles
Whose chessboard field
Narrows
To a vanishing point
Stands
A hunched old woman
Ball in hand
She aims
For a harshly illuminated spot
Where the walls converge
And on which stands
A tiny figure
The size
Of her raised thumb
7
Under the molding
Of the rectory
Covered
In silver tinfoil
Hang
Long strings
Fastened
To the tips of pillows
That swaddle
Twelve small children
As they swing
Above twelve wooden cups
Twelve ostrich eggs
Sit in
Twelve huge roosters
Pound
Their beaks
Into those enamel shells
Which emit
Like a carillon
The short tones
Of a diatonic scale
Played
Very quickly
Bottom to top
Top to bottom
And then
At random
Composing
A lullaby
8
At the table
In a low
Vaulted room
From whose walls
Covered
In frames of various sizes
Stares
The exact same
Portrait painted
Twenty-one times
Of a man from the sixteenth century
Twenty-one sisters
Seated
Offer a toast
To their twenty-first birthdays
With twenty-one glasses
Of cut crystal
Reflecting
Twenty-one times
Twenty-one
Low
Vaulted rooms
From whose walls
Covered
In frames of various sizes
Stares
The exact same
Portrait painted
Twenty-one times
Of a man from the sixteenth century
9
In a school
With desks
Whose inkpot holes
Hold miniature flowerpots
Flutters
A dove
Chasing
A beetle
That searches
Terrified
For an inkpot
Meanwhile
School children
Sit under the desks
Reciting
A fable
About a beetle
Chasing
A dove
That searched
Terrified
For the window
With the flowerpot
And the children nibble
Candy blossoms
Of fuchsias
From sugar
Planted
In the marmalade
Of gingerbread flowerpots
10
On the beds
Of a lantern-lit hospital
A doctor
; Playing the flute
Revives
Dead tubercular women
With rosy cheeks
In the light
Of an artificial moon
That shines
Into the blue eyes
Of the dead tubercular women
For so long
It hypnotizes them
Until
They sit up
Rigid
Hands outstretched
To the miraculous doctor
Who
Plays the flute
And dances
On tiptoe
As if
Floating
11
To the butcher
Who strikes
A silver axe
Against stalactites
In the depths
Of a cold cellar
Where the floor is covered
By round bowls
Filled with oil
A lit wick
Floating in each
Comes
A widow
All in black
And offers him
A small lamb
She cradles
In her arms
Sparkling
With a gem
Made
From gold teeth
Biting
Convulsively
A pomegranate
12
Witches
Stooped over a cauldron
In a white-washed cell
Cook
Plum jam
A candle in one hand
A ladle in the other
They smirk
At their reflection
Which writhes
In the resinous boil
And spit
From the depths of hell
Upward
At the wooden ceiling
Covered
In flies
And bats
Embedded in the cobwebs
Little
Pink
Pips
13
From dormer windows
Stretch
Tilted upward
Toward the west
Long beautiful hands
In white gloves
Bedecked with
Diamond jewels
Getting
Rained on
14
In the fountain
Amid the square
Floats
A diver
Searching
For yesterday’s sunset
15
A pack of dogs
Chases the shadow
Of a stag
Grazing
Behind a shop window
On the grass
That covers
A huge round table
Set
For a dinner for three
16
Sidewalks
Lined
With white
Fluffy sheets
Trampled
By jealous lovers
17
Amid the wind
Jingling
In sheet-metal doors
Pounded by sand
Hang
On an iron ring large
Forgotten keys
18
An enormous cockroach
Emerged from the church
And stumbled
Down the steep stairs
To sit at the feet
Of the night watch
Whistling
Thirteen
19
A priest
Fires a revolver
Into a large loaf of bread
Swinging
On a hemp string
In the window
Of his cousin
Who rode off
On the metro
20
A hailstorm
Broke down the door
Of a café
Holding
A mass confession
21
On a trapeze
Set
Between two trees
Swarming with bees
Hangs
A naked woman
Tied at the ankles
While a drummer
Kneels
And kisses
Her lips
Playing a drum
That sends off
These golden
Sparkling bees
Whose queen
Is the evening star
Rising
In the towering
Purple sky
22
On the platform
Erected
Amid the garden
Sit
Musicians
Holding
French horns
And
Drinking from them
Golden nectar
Poured
Into their wide
Upturned
Openings
By tall
Heavily made-up
Brunettes
In long gowns
Down which cascades
Floor-length
To their ankles
Redolent of May rain
And lightly ruffled
Long
Undone hair
23
As bells
In garrets
Chime solemnly
An antique dress train
Falls from the shoulder
Of large tailors' dummies
That come to life
In the arms
Of fifteen-year-old boys
Whose
Left hands lower
Green blinds
24
Hairdressers
With high bobs
Sit
On the square
In tin bathtubs
And hold to their lips
Delicate forefingers
Tipped with pink nails
25
A knight
In asbestos armor
Bent
Over a short oak log
Splits the wood
And throws it
Into a well
From which rises
Acrid
Flicker-tinged
Bluish smoke
26
In cradles
Under amethyst skies
Rocking
>White storks
Clutch in their beaks
Folded black umbrellas
27
From twelve hives
Erected
In front of a shop
Selling military caps
The sound of weeping
Soldiers run out
To the sidewalk
And pound
Their sabers
Into these
Marvelous gramophones
Spinning
The exact same record
28
Behind the counter
In a little shop
Where blinds are being drawn
A beautiful glovemaker
Waving a glove
At a wandering fly
Examines
Her bosom
Glistening
In the neckline
Of her unbuttoned cardinal’s cassock
29
In the scrapheap
Where dominoes
Glitter
Walks
A preoccupied child
Counting
From one to a hundred
30
Fish
In barrels
Placed
Around the graveyard
Full of strawflowers
Jump into the air
And fall
Into freshly dug graves
Where red sky
Rippled rainwater
Vanishes
31
A pharmacist
Tied to a bench
And
guzzling
From a huge
Unstopped cask
White wine
Gazes anxiously at the clock
Whose hands are spun
By a manic swallow
32
Under the eaves
In the rain
Glitters the reflection of eyeglasses
On an old prisoner
Who has stuck his head
Through the decrepit bars
33
On a stovetop
That does not light
A peacock spread
Its azure tail
And sparkled
Amid a moonlit night
34
Lightning
Casts
A beam of fire
Through a bedroom window
Where a blind man airs out
White bedding
Covered in little handprints
35
A dog plays
On an indigo carpet
With a bullet-ridden top hat
Dyed white
36
A herd of horses
Eyes bandaged
With white gauze
Hurdles
One by one
A huge violoncello
Set on its side
Under the ceremonial arch
Where soon will pass
A woeful wedding
37
A rabbit skin
Stuffed with sawdust
In which a ringed snake
Has its nest
Writhes
On a jailhouse
Facade
Covered
In black sugar paper
And hermetically sealed
To keep
In
The horrible barking
Of a bulldog
Sentenced
To a week
In prison
By the white lady
From the nearby ruins
Who arrives
Always at night
Barefoot
During a new moon
To wipe dust
From the black piano
The Absolute Gravedigger Page 5
