It takes place on the top floor
where the television is and the big bed.
It takes place when the afternoon has reached an end
or after a trashed film has been shown on television
and when it is what is left to do.
It takes place between two bodies that join together
and have some movements to exchange
and some words to utter. Fucking is a language
that is used and a story that is told
and it is something that takes place while the ocean whispers
outside and the stars in the sky are still invisible
and the people in the town are still indoors.
Fucking is something that takes place in the eternal afternoon
when the electric pumps and the refrigerator have become silent
and conversations from the street rise up to the top floor
with the television and the bed. It is here with overwhelming
light coming in through windows and doors that it takes place. It
extends in this hour and takes shape in this room.
*
NEW TIRES
The white man fucks the black woman.
Amid vodou and death.
That’s how simple I see it.
Let me go on.
The palm tree trembles.
The sea prostitutes itself every day.
Animals murmur in the inner sanctum.
The gate is closed all day
and there’s no water in the pool.
I buy four new tires and arrange a repair
of the chassis.
That’s all.
Jorgen Leth, Trivial Everyday Things, translator: Martin Aitken, publisher: Book Thug
in English · Texts · Poetry