The second of a raven's eye

by: Luminita Mihai
( translated from Romanian by Gabriel G)


An unseen hand knocks on my window
I feel its tender perfume of flower and of rain
And it seems to me the city carrying the houses on its shoulder
Is running towards a future winter
When all things are the same as at the beginning
Clean, untouched by any breath
It seems to me that crying canes
Are walking with no legless cripples on the streets
That none other live here but laundry on the wire
And flat silent spades without diggers
Exchanging whispers, and one can hear
The light hanging on the lamp post
An unseen hand knocks on my window
Smashing the second on the pavement
As an over ripe melon
I feel its tender perfume of flower and rain
And two black raven's eyes stare at me through the glazing.




Copyright ©2009 Luminita Mihai

September as a wager

by: Luminita Mihai
( translated from Romanian by Gabriel G)



I wish I'd die on the first of September
When autumn marks grades in the class books
And the rains of chalk are falling
On the giddy girls' laughter

Then my body hungry shall be
By the clay's embrace - supreme
As of a last and too beautiful lover
That lacks the knowledge of the leaf's theorem

To know the sextons hang by themselves(alone)
With a pint of rotgut by the right foot
So much more and deeper September
A rusty groom shall embrace me

And let the silence be in equations
And the reports be seen with mercy
And-garrulous-dropping their satchels on the sidewalks
May the children have passed their exams

I love the first of September as a station
I never in the least have reached - delayed
Each time the city shakes its skirts of rain
I'm ready to bet: so it shall be!




Copyright ©2009 Luminita Mihai