poetry for breakfast

June 3,2015

 

 

Olli Heikkonen (Finland, 1965)   

 

Won’t you close your eyes

 

 

Won’t you close your eyes.
Their light is brighter than other lights.
It aches in the eyes and scorches the neck.
It comes from beyond the trees, human light,
and makes me race
to the shrubs and tall grass
to the icy core of the forest.
 
And what it is like to sink into the swamp
with straight legs, hooves like lead weights.
 
Hairs push into the turf,

every pore

bursts open. Bursts open
 
for in the depths of mud and sludge
a soft light has taken root,
a simple light
has taken root.

 

 

 (translation: Maria Lyytinen)