Carmen Firan

Queens, New York, USA

 

 

Carmen Firan, Romanian born living in New York, is a poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, and playwright. She has published twenty eight books of poetry, novels, essays and short stories. Her writings appear in translation in many literary magazines and in various anthologies in Europe and in the U.S. Among her recent books are: Interviews and Encounters. Dialogue and poetry with Nina Cassian (Sheep Meadow Press), Rock and Dew (Sheep Meadow Press), Words and Flesh (Talisman Publishers). She is a member of PEN American Center and the Poetry Society of America.                        

 

 

September 11, 2020

 

When this time is over

 

 

There will come another time

Crueler.

The knife sharpener gets wind under his wings

Wheel and fire are reinvented on the spot

Distances quietly settle back within their limits

Little girls jump hoops at the edge of gravity

The old antiquarian strokes his beard facetiously

Stuffs his library into a pocket:

What’s not been written can never be read.

Everything is pointless, says a blind man,

They’ve lost the key,

Locked doors don’t open anymore.

 

When this time is past, other times follow

History cleans its traps and sets them in place

For prospectors for gold wanderers in no-man’s land

Until a tree sprouts over the heart

Time will be entitled to its rights like a knife

Poorer and shorter with every life.