Tone Škrjanec

 

Calm

I am so calm. red moon. it has just come drifting
from beyond the clouds. slowly, like an inquisitive toddler.
on television there is a small florid vase with a dried-up rose
and violence. killings with hands and guns. it's all
very fast, as if it were for real. monika doesn't know this.
she sleeps quietly. sleeps and breathes evenly like a machine.
it is night. but I can hear the cars not sleeping.
nor cats. screeching, they chase each other beneath our window.
I can't sleep either. I sit, can't say I'm thinking, just
watching the vein that licks your palm like a river.


Translated by Ana Jelnikar

 

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