Between Two Rainfalls

the tram stops in front of the supermarket

a chic lady passes between street vendors

swaying a sun umbrella

she doesn’t give charity

her smile is like an automatic door

 

a small spider trembles on my elevator’s wall

I step out trying not to touch it

anyway it won’t become a big spider

I open my kitchen window

blowing out a yellow ladybug

anyway it won’t survive on the motorway

I turn my mechanical clock key

falling asleep

 

time engulfs his children one by one

sometimes a metronome strikes louder

it’s not a solution to dream my life away 

each sleep offspring grows like a whale

swallowing churches completely

delivering in the depths shapeless creatures

me I stay inside

 

I count two sleepless nights

then I get back into the city

an old man with a sun umbrella waits

in the same tram station

 

I figured out all these

because in this big city

I know only two streets by heart

Reviews

[Dr. Wood ?]

you have the most wonderful imagination and this is great...I couldn't pick out my favourite phrases because there are so many

[Cristina Moldoveanu]

I am happy you liked this piece Dr. Wood. It is one of my few poems with urban inspiration. And it is not quite imagination, many details were true in my life in the city - the two umbrellas in the same station in different days, the spider in the elevator and the ladybug on my kitchen windowsill. I just combined them like this.

[Dr. Wood ?]

Many people would see a spider and that is ALL that they would see...So imagination surely played a part. I write mainly childrens stuff as you know and much of it comes from observation...but the old magic ingredient is IMAGINATION

[Cristina Moldoveanu]

I know what you mean, interpreting, linking meanings, representing and other things like that. Thanks again.

[Cristina Moldoveanu]

But excuse me to intervene again, that is called thinking! And of course thinking can be done in images. I agree with, you I have the tendency in my poems to go beyond the simple recording of facts, always in a logical manner but not everyone can understand my meanings or what I have understood. I think that Archibald Mac Leish was right when he said that "a poem should not mean, but be". It is hard to write a poem easy to be understood by everyone, people experiences and knowledge differ and a poem is not a lesson for children. Even poems for children have other purposes, not a clear explanation.

[Dr. Wood ?]

I agree, but kids stuff is easy..much less complex