33rd & Kirkham

33rd & Kirkham

At the edge of the bed, at the edge of darkness
and the tempo of your breathing next to me,
a prelude begins, each watery note written in light.
Too soon, the air will brighten, and the light
will secure this room, will stipple the tide
etching rocks in the distance. Along the avenues,
the fog will begin to lift, the birds will scatter
from the hedges while the heart remains still
with doubt. And when you open your eyes,
at the end of your journey back to this world,
when you clasp my hand darkly in yours,
the cool palm's lines coarsely against my own,
the song will lie quietly in our throats.
And the light will resurrect our features, will ferry
the smile from our dreams while reminding us
that anything in this world is possible, that nothing is. . . .
The heart, silly in my chest, keeps discordant time.
Each and every minute fades to memory in such light.
C. Dale Young
The Second Person
Four Way Books

Waiting for the Barbarians

"Waiting for the Barbarians"
by Constantine Cavafy (1864-1933)
translated by Edmund Keeley*

What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn't anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?
Because the barbarians are coming today.
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they'll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting at the city's main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don't our distinguished orators come forward as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and they're bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people's faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home so lost in thought?
Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.

And now, what's going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution.