CONJUNCTIONS: A Web Exclusive

Three Poems Fani Papageorgiou

The Little Blind Girls In the Bay of Biscay Deep into the sea Lives Obadiah The giant Nautilus. Obadiah is obsessed. I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. In the Bay of Biscay Down in the briny deep Live the little blind girls. Benedicamus Domino, they shout to Obadiah Let us bless the Lord— But Obadiah is obsessed. In the Bay of Biscay Little blind girls wear blue dresses with mandarin collars And they pray and pray. Obadiah, the giant Nautilus Eats the fish the little blind girls scale and clean for him. Dominus vobiscum, they shout to Obadiah The Lord be with you— But Obadiah is obsessed. The girls are unhappy. They dress candles in vinegar They steal sugar and cigarettes from Obadiah— They are bored living on the sea-bed Past Abyssinian breeding-mares Past saltwater apple-trees They do not know how to practice self-restraint I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. The Book of Recondite Facts Let’s declare ourselves a long way from home They say that a priest on a boat often caused shipwreck Let’s chat the hours away In most agrarian societies, it is the custom to marry after the crops are harvested Let’s tuck in our shirts and go out with a single pain in our minds Blindfolded men cannot distinguish severe burning from severe freezing There must be an end of trifling and even time must have a stop The carotid pulse is the last pulse you lose before you die Let’s throw away the oars caked with moss and mussels Catholic priests were blinded by having lime and vinegar rubbed into their eyes Let’s stay in a boat in the middle of the sea Salt consists of two substances, which are poisons, sodium and chlorine. Let’s fool the siren call of sleep by reciting facts KR: abbreviation in chess for “king’s rook” The strangeness that we can never work out Pilgrims coming from Santiago de Compostela wore cockleshells in their hats— Yes, the smell of oatmeal and antiseptic from the kitchen Yes, you wonder how many things in the world deserve your loyalty Well can’t you see I have cake in my mouth? I’ll tell you something if you promise not to get mad— All you need is a strong sense of what is fitting Facts, like love really, are most unreliable They are shadows of rabbits made by hands on the wall They smell like burnt mineral They are only as strong as China tea They have no patience with anyone And one day they’ll cause you a lot of unhappiness. One Chair We’re in an empty room Where there is only one chair And you’re sitting on it. There is nowhere else for me to sit. I move around the room And while we talk Without fretting Pretending there’s nothing unusual in it I stop before you and I sit on your knees. You act as if nothing forbidden has happened. After all, there is no other chair Surely no one can stay standing for a long time, One must get a rest. And it is while I am on your lap Feeling entitled Because of necessity That I begin to store happiness. What we don’t eat in season We’re canning for the winter. You’re talking on and on But this is less an affair of diction You and I know more. You pretend there are no sad, large pieces around us And you’re staring at my ankles dangling in the air. We don’t know what’s going to happen to us. What can you do with love not allowed? Having so intensely imagined ourselves as carefree people We remain seated. You and I can withstand very cold water. A life without upset Is rainfall collected in cisterns. □