Three Poems
Adela Toplean
Temporal Arrangement (for a seer)
He stood under her gaze and felt his willing ego unfolding itself,
stretching towards reality like a lizard towards a sun-warmed stone.
She mildly spoke on something old
and then she spoke in confidence on something new.
She filled all missing data with their approximate estimates.
With a minimalistic, barely noticeable choreography,
she moved from a narrowing present towards a vast, yet graspable future.
He moved with her.
The more he followed, the further he saw.
Suddenly, all reasons to die seemed to him very scarce and somewhat doubtful.
She then wrapped him in hope and softly laid him down in his living grave.
Masked Moon
The moon was up all day
seeking a living in the booming sunlight business:
“I need a bright start, something new that lasts for life.”
The moon did alright in the sunshine, wearing a mask, working from home.
She too, like all people, didn’t go out in the streets.
And much time passed, and she’s grown old working from home, wearing a mask.
She would sometimes dream of Darkness and of her lying full and round behind
moving clouds
with half-closed eyes and nothing to do, fading quietly at dawn,
but did not miss it.
The sun watched her ardour with proud eyes.
One day at noon he stopped her and said with a mocking smile:
“You are a proper daylighter: no living thing more distant from the Night than you.”
She did not respond, she was worn out from work and unsure of what to say.
Her face was also a little pale.
The Doors Project
Doors everywhere, mostly open, and not a single wall in sight.
Continents and oceans filled with doors and nothing else.
It turns out they’ve torn down the walls, but kept the doors up
and even built new ones so that people won’t lose confidence
and interest in moving through space.
“It keeps people from suffocating” the lead architect explained, “it also keeps them
from drifting.”
“Doors are everything” the spokesman added,
“This is great spiritual capital. Very religious, very optimistic.
Just knock and walk through.
See? That’s always exciting.”
Adela Toplean is a writer and lecturer at the Faculty of Letters, University of Bucharest (Romania). She has published two books on death and dying and has two more in preparation. She has a novel under construction and a bunch of novellas under her desk.