RETURN TO B.

1.

Sleeping on a train is a nightmare. I wake

on some gray station, take a look,

see a peasant pass by on the platform

with a beer can in his hand. Afterwards,

I saw houses, yards, purple leaves

on the ground and over the thickets,

a distant hill and the sun when it shone

through the doors of the compartment

between the unknown woman

and her daughter, who is my angel.

2.

Not even today I could say aloud the name

of a man who many years ago

embarrassed me. On the telephone,

I muttered something, promised

what they were asking of me,

put down the phone, sighed, slapped

my thighs and remembered the old days

the water took away

under a crow’s wing.