- What is your name? Any preferred name?
- Beautiful name. How do you—sorry, I’m too American, I’ve lost the mother tongue say it again so I can pronounce it correctly
- Where were you born? Time and place
- That’s very far away from here relatives?
- Mother, father, two sisters. What are they like—
- You at all? One sister is and you don’t talk to the other anymore. I see now please
- Describe the place you grew up where you came from
- Your childhood room? You say it always smelled like blackberries,
- Tart, wallpaper peeling down in strips
- Of candy—you liked candy? A sweet tooth. Favorite flavor?
- Passion fruit. A texture of blasting bomb…bursting upon your lip. Oh, not lip
- You said limp…you had a limp. How did you get it,
- Accident or youth? Both you got it from both (you say you were injured jumping off a fence no, no, I’ll leave it off the record)
- A bad limp is not very attractive did you have a soft
- Smile to make up for it You were courted despite the limp! That’s sweet…a smile and
- A boy to kiss you too, did you get this necklace from him? You did you peeled oranges for him split them in two and gave yourself the smaller half. Where is this boy now?
- Dead? Dead. How many years ago did you last
- See him? Did you ever marry no, you don’t know why and
- You didn’t see him again, but maybe you dreamed? You did. On your knees in the dark inert on the ground you dreamed. Of what? Simple breakfasts and quiet mornings, you say but
- You never had a tongue of your own, you had to cut it by yourself…
- Then why did you come here? Ellis Island, want of opportunity sifting for purpose getting away from shadows that spoke to you at night
- but…yes, yes, I see. You never knew what you worked for
- Kids? Any kids of your own a daughter to remind you of the boy you kept close. Just one daughter, that’s
- The worst you poor girl, poor girl with child duplicate piece of redmeat ripped from your heart, so does your daughter love you? No, she is swept away, drifting drunk on currents of freedom…I’m sorry.
- What’s that can you repeat that? oh, I apologize for the chill. Your fingers must be
- So cold shivering without any warmth. The heating doesn’t work in this room, we’re just renting the space out for the month
- That should be better I just called them up to come fix the unit
- And what of peace? Is there peace here for you, for anyone
- or is the world more
- silvery and senseless?
- You’re trembling…you don’t know the answer to that question.
- No worries, I think we can stop here.
Uncategorized