The Metaphysician in the Dark
The world has always been old, but why I’ve never
seen this narrow street before? Why on the dusty
sidewalk I see tracks of my childhood shoes? These
questions are for Solomon, Tommaso Campanella
and for you, dear Aristotle. But let’s leave it that way.
This place is always dark. Each one of the small houses
is silent. Each one of the lawns is long forgotten.
Black heavy grass is swaying beneath grey clouds.
Then who writes about this street? Who creates this place
where even Death will need a map? I imagine fat tallow candle,
rusty candlestick, covered in cobwebs, and one creaking quill,
leaving traces of the blackest ink. What about a wine carafe?
Of course there is. The writer takes a sip, looks up and sees
behind one of the windows a man who whispers to someone.
.
Official Address
Time twists like a rope around
the clock and tries to strangle it,
while my empty cup brims with promises.
Happiness, I accuse you of transiency!
And you, Mrs. History, I accuse of bloodlust
and distorted memories.
Madam Politics, why are you looking
in the mirror and try to hide the red blotches
on your hands? And you, the Greenbacks,
for whose fancy account you’re dressed up like that?
Time will stop soon, just give it another
five billion years and you will be gone, too.
But until then let us behave properly, like
real ladies and gents in this exquisite restaurant.
I’ll order peeled heavens for dinner,
drained of tears and regrets and you can
tell the waiter that you would like a roasted
white dove with olives. I know you’ll love it.
© Peycho Kanev
Peycho Kanev is the author of 6 poetry collections and three chapbooks, published in the USA and Europe. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, such as: Rattle, Poetry Quarterly, Evergreen Review, Front Porch Review, Hawaii Review, Barrow Street, Sheepshead Review, Off the Coast, The Adirondack Review, Sierra Nevada Review, The Cleveland Review and many others. His new chapbook titled Under Half-Empty Heaven was published in 2019 by Grey Book Press.
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