Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Mosques of Solitude and Self - Denial

Walk over the dead leaves.  Hear the fall and smell the morning chill as if a promise time has kept for you.  The woods are far, the city is of concrete, old stones, unshaved men and menly women.  Yet the leaves are dead, because urban trees do not drink morning dew with the pleasure you drink your coffee, before sunset.  Urban trees do not see the sunset as they were planted facing north.

Walk with your dog.  Watch him find what he had already found yesterday.  And the day before.  For you take the same road, because it is the only one you have.  The woods are far, the city has asphalt roads, and you think about night blooming Jasmine when you walk the city roads.  The same road.  Where all scents are old, even when the day is new.



Walk simply, as you always come back to the same house looking south.  Where the balcony was once a view over the passing of people and time.  Where you celebrated sunsets even if you could not see them.  Yet you knew they were upon the ocean.  You could almost smell them.  You could hold your breath and recall the times you sat by the shore, spitting sunflower seed shells, and dangling your toes close to the water.  You were a sunset away then from another day.

Walk slowly.  You have nothing to discover.  Your pillow has the perfume of last night.  Your bed is still of her shape taken.  But you will come back to an empty house, now only vibrant by the sounds of the coffee-maker running on the same daily program you set when your bed was of her shape always warm.  Now you take the leash off your dog, clean the sleepees from his eyes, and let him sigh as he flops in his usual spot.

It is a new day.

October 14, 2009

©Vahé Kazandjian, 2013

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