The Mood of a Day
We plainly saw that not a soul lived in that fated vessel!
•
EDGAR ALLAN POE
The mood of a day we lived ten years ago in a foreign
land
the ether of an ancient moment that grew wings and flew
away like the Lord’s angel
the voice of a woman forgotten with so much prudence
and so much pain
an inconsolable end, a September setting made
of marble.
New houses dusty clinics eruptive windows
coffin maker’s shops…
Has anyone thought of what the sensitive drug store owner endures
on duty all night long?
The room is in a mesh: drawers windows doors with
gaping mouths like wild animals
a pissed off man reads the cards, searches, reads the stars,
seeks.
He worries: if they knock at the door who will open it?
If he opens a book whom is he to look at? If he opens
his soul who will look? Chain
Where is love that with a single stroke cuts time in two
and dumbs it?
Only words and gestures. An unvarying monologue
before a mirror under a wrinkle
The boredom spreads like an ink mark on a handkerchief
They all died in the ship, but the ship follows the route
it started from the harbor.
How the captain’s nails grew…and the boatswain who had
three girlfriends in every port unshaven.
The sea swells slowly, the riggings fill with pride and
the day becomes mild.
Three dolphins appearing black, shine, the mermaid smiles
and a forgotten seaman riding the yardarm waves.

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