Joseph! Joseph! He called him. He built froth
for himself in the bread. With a bibelot of salt, with two
bibelots of salt. He wrung out his breath.
Rocks were cutting. Jacob, if he’s in a box, doesn’t
jump. He picks. He picks and pokes, sows mortal
dew. The little ball rotates in the tonic. The sun
curdles before it gets white-hot. Two wells, one
below the other. There was glitter, with a membrane,
with little hills. They didn’t spill over, they lay
in the belly of the earth like two fat drunken snakes.
They didn’t touch Robert. Robert, Jacob,
Joseph, we all got our teeth into it. Muzzles kept
falling around thighs like foxes. They solidified
into ceramics. Ceramics are the eyes of cathedrals. Under
the foot of every elephant is an eye. The eye is harder
than the fan. The pheasant covers your
eyes. Its chest is a thick plank. Then I yanked terraces
out of the hills. I yanked out every grain of rice. The meat in
aspic and the stench open. Cotton rags absorb linen.
Then we pull them out with a cord. With a musical ear
from the well below, and from the one above with a bucket
and a cord. Trictrac. The skin rubs itself out. When the cube
spins on the flat unmarked field, it spins for the last time.
The oblong triangle draws itself. Then a round
token drops out. This one jams already. This one jams
already. At the same time soothes. I hope,
I really really hope, someone stuffs the heads of the Indians
with vinyl plastic. Only then will they be able to stick out
their tongues, first at the backs of the ants, then at
the bone of the sun. The bone hangs like a monument.
Translated from the Slovenian by Christopher Merrill and the author