once,
during one of those states of siege
we plunge our bodies into
through copious cocktail abuse, as if
we were seafarers or whores
and not just in our dreams,

you became so approachable
it made my eyes bleed

the town lay as peaceful as ever
and didn't even notice
its bombardment

whole streets had been wiped out;
we were the only ones to see it

but we were trapped
and waited for it to pass

then fresh life bubbled up
from the severed heads of the hydrants
flooding just everything

chris, you remember
how we went outside,
you with your peculiar hat
and me with a pair of bunny ears

but we made it through,
the lanterns bent down to us
with their crooked necks,
placid dinosaurs

they ate the light
from our hands,

and I told you
I'd started meditating
to stop the lethal nervousness
that controls the whole of my life.

Translated by Alistair Noon