Níkos Davvétas
From: The Yellow Darkness of Van Gogh (1995)
Sunflowers
in the moon's crystal
blind the mirror doesn't see
doesn't hear the knife
yellow powder spilt on the dresser
empty perfume bottles on the floor.
A sleepy girl loosens her brassiere
and leads the way up the wooden stairs
in her eyes I can see she's noticed
what I've long suspected
yellow sunflowers sprout in my beard
their roots drilling through the bone
deep in my brain their branches fork
I hear the cries that come from my mouth
whispers like the water's breath
someone indoors
is playing the part of the sea
hanging from the globe
he can measure the hours
the ebb of time
I'd like to shave the sunflowers from my throat
and the ones on my chin
but I fear the movements
beauty so useless in my hands
that the broken mirror returns to me
the immutable sheen of death.
Translated by Simon Darragh
Page(s) 178
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