Camera Obscura – Poems of Maria Skoula translated by Mel Rosenberg

Camera Obscura

It is something…

I don’t know…

A moment…

When the rush of the wind grows strong passing through the window cracks

And whistles a menacing threat

When the tips of the fingers touch one another

And short circuit

Then a flash

And even though you’ve seen it just once

You become a crusader of the untraceable.

That is when…

*

*

It was sunrise

I looked far out the small window

To where the street curved

A cyclist was coming

I felt these wheels

Were cogs

Revolving inside me

Then I moistened my hands

And touched my pale cheeks

I looked in the mirror

And I saw a woman

“I will put it on paper”, I thought.

“With colors? With tears? With water?

No!

Dry.”

So I started to write.

*

In Absentia

Thousands of stones

Sand

Grains

Years and years

Two stones collide

And break into pieces

Release your power to the open air

Or into the sea

Instead of crushing your own stones.

*