HOW IT BEGAN
July 9th We met and your smile
coloured my skies for the first time.
We asked the ducks and the swans
on the little pond,
But they knew little about
our impending happiness
and preferred to go to sleep early.
July 13th You showed me the forest near my house
Where I wanted to scare you
with all my nightmares.
But you mistook them for birds
And took pictures of them.
Your smile continued
to put shades of hope on my sky.
July 19th We walked the shores of a sea
Where we were greeted by dolphins.
I didn’t want to listen to them
for fear of good news.
And I was still prone
to cultivate catastrophes.
August 10th I built my first cocoon
where you were banished from,
As if my world was insisting
on the abstruse loneliness.
August 18th I’m still looking at you
and searching for a manual:
Can you be loved?
Shall I take you with water?
Before meals
or intermittent fasting?
August 19th ‘I’m in love with another man’,
I told you.
Where was I when I told you that?
Did I know I was lying?
August 24th Pain, said the body, have some!
It’s healing, it’s debilitating…
Wake up, my dear!
Why do you ache, my body?
Because you don’t allow me to be loved!
August 25th ‘Patience is the virtue of the wise’, said the Writer.
And I told you I missed you.
‘You’re in love with another man’,
said your smile,
continuing to paint my skies:
Some yellow this time,
as an anticipated departure.
August 28th The glass of wine we drank in your tent
was having an affair
with the grass, and the sky, and the sheep.
I breathed you in
And you felt like
a good quality heart decongestant.
September 8th You said I was resilient and beautiful.
And then the words disappeared
to let Love solve
existential equations.
We hold hands and we started breathing
in a simple, colourful and aeonian manner.
TranslatingRitaSophie 