Bewitched

By Pia Juul

I make them wake up one morning in a big
house with
almost empty rooms. The bedclothes don´t
rustle
because they´re soft and used.
One of them is thin
The other is not naked - it´s a woman,
she is dressed in many layers of fabric, there
is silk and
                                                               cotton,
tulle that prickles, wool that scratches, and
all of it
                                                               black,
she doesn´t want to take it off,
she´ll never take it off, but he has touched
                                                               her,
now he touches her again,
and she sighs, she is hot,
there are so many clothes
she says nothing, she touches him back,
he lies almost underneath her side,
he is nothing but skin,
and so it should be, so it is, so it has
been all night long. I make them lie where
                                                               they awoke,
they can keep on lying there, let them lie
there, let his
                                                               clothes
be gone, let the doors be locked, let them
                                                               always
lie there, let her be hot, let it infect
                                                               him, let
the rooms echo around their sounds, let them
                                                               be,
Let them be

Translated by Steven T. Murray