1.
The
table shook. It was a choice “Give
me your hand,” the
fortune teller said to me.
between
the open door
and the
glass of water.
2.
I
needed an excuse; I took my wine glass
to the
kitchen. Nobody told me
to do
the dishes.
The
basin of water reeked of fish.
3.
He said:
“The sea coughed up a year’s worth According to
the fortune
teller, I should guard
myself
of
corpses. When I called it an accomplice,
against my own stupidity
Give me anything and I will
its
waves crept up to my feet,
drink it.
licking
them clumsily. So intense, it seemed,
was its
desire to be forgiven.
4.
The
locked door could not subdue
their
drunken laughter. Nothing could be done
about
the smell of fish;
I
scrubbed my arms and the bathwater
shook my
face to pieces.
What is
a mirror but water that refuses to budge? I wanted to
smash the tattoo
of a butterfly on her wrist.
5.
The
earth shook. Somebody dreamt
of a
bowl of fruit, somebody asked
for
water. The night was a single wail
of a
siren.
6.
I wanted
to hear about cops and hoses. She bored
me with the
details of my past. She
He said:
“Can I tell you instead about the time
called me names that
couldn’t hurt me.
I lived
away from the sea.”
7.
After
the bath, I signed my name She
said her tattoo was
“her lucky fish.”
on the
glass. I wanted to see the city
through
my clumsy script, but my breath
erased
every opportunity.
8.
The
loaves, the fish, the water-into-wine. I
asked the fortune teller if I
could spend the night on her
In every
story, there must be room couch.
I was afraid to sleep;
the sirens
outside her
for the
sea.
window soothed me.
9.
They
slept like corpses on the carpet.
Wearing
nothing but a towel,
I
stepped over their bodies
and
reached for a glass.
10.
It was
water that killed him. “Drink,”
she said.
They
drowned him in a bucket
because
he never said a word.
