In each of us dwells
a naked human being

I want to love you
as the day crashes into your lap
and dusk lifts your nightgown, the night’s sail
I want to love you
in a galop of champagne
on an Alabama bus
on a Moroccan carpet, once again,
in a Spanish lizard cabaret
in the Arab Quarter of Paris
in a room that’s nothing but a bed
on an abandoned anthill
on a five-penny opera set
in a party of good people
on top of a tramcar, amidst its flashing sparklers
in a scrivener’s stall
in a poorhouse attic
in government funerals, on the nation’s catafalque
in fields of wild strawberries
on a chair of aesthetics
at a bookfair, in the night of those who make love
in an army jug
I want to love you
when I grow old and turn blind eyes to this world
when the earth receives me for the last time
when you lift your hand in farewell as I sink down
when my desire wakes me from all this
in the middle of the night

In the shade of a leafy grove lives the bird I long for
In the summer night
the sun’s lance
explodes in my eyes

It is the moment
             and suddenly,
                with a flash I barely notice
you stand in the snow, prisoner of the cold
and your nakedness terrifies me

You are a weasel on my bed
and I, an ermine, witness the blood drops of your presence
             on the sparkling snow
on the snows
of your soft
   thighs

Translated by Aili and Austin Flint


Arvo Ahlroos drawings and poems from his book Sylisi Orkideat
were shown in Laterna Magica 16.9. - 4.10.1997


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