Ordeal

Ordeal

Translated from the Romanian by Michael Impey and Brian Swann

I promise to make you more alive than you’ve ever been.

For the first time you’ll see your pores opening

Like the gills of fish and you’ll hear

The noise of blood in galleries

And feel light gliding on your corneas

Like the dragging of a dress across the floor.

For the first time, you’’ note gravity’s prick

Like a thorn in your heel,

And your shoulder blades with hurt for the imperative of wings.

I promise to make you so alive that

The fall of dust on furniture will deafen you,

And you’ll feel your eyebrows like two wounds forming

And your memories will seem to begin

With the creation of the world.