from Lips. You. Lips. Me.

Monta Kroma

***

cool
are your lips
how cool
are your
lips
only a spring rain rains like this
it rains and whispers
it rains on the naked air in parks
it rains on naked branches in parks
it rains on nakedness
it rains on naked lips in parks
it rains on naked benches in parks
it rains on nakedness
it rains on naked sidewalks in parks
it rains and whispers
cool
are your lips
how cool
like the lips of a boy
they open up and swallow a droplet
they open up and breathe a droplet on my lips
my lips as if sculpted
cool
are your lips
how cool
your lips swallow a droplet
your lips breathe a droplet on mine
my lips as if sculpted
cool
are your lips
how cool
they swallow a droplet
they breathe a droplet on my lips
as if sculpted
cool
are your lips
how cool
are your
lips
it whispers and rains
it rains on nakedness
only a spring rain rains like this





***

Rain.
Rain tattoo.
The words “don’t go” are spelled out on me in wet images.
I cast a spell on myself—“don’t go.”
Rain.
If I went, I’d go for good.
But you said—“don’t come.” And you said “don’t
                                                    kiss me when
                                                    I’m asleep.”
Rain like a scientist cuts me with scalpels.
Rain.
Working its way around my cheeks and forehead, and both
                                                    my knees.
Scalpels.
Rain.
Rain tattoos me unhurriedly, it marks my hips thoughtfully.
What now?
What more now? Rain swirls . . .
Rain writes all over my back.
To bring forth a pure species.
Rain.
And now everything has been said in watermarks: how
                                                    someone says “don’t go”
                                                    to herself.
Rain tattoo.
Rain.
They say we all once came from water.
As newly created, I now come from water.
Marked all over by watermarks,
indelible like watermarks
on banknotes.
I come out of the water.
And the whole world is so quiet and so
                                                    quiet, and so
                                                    quiet, and only
                                                    a ship on the sea
                                                    —Tooo! Tooo!—toots
                                                    sadly.

translated from the Latvian by Karlis Verdins