Ring the Bell

by Tomaž Šalamun

You boil that bit of time in between.
The difference between when you come
and when you say you are coming. No. It’s
not that simple.  I too am no novice.

The difference between the expected and
the real arrrival regardless of what you said.
The Bible cannot be read literally.  Layers of
uttered time are taken away.  But in those

thin little zones, the new shock of time folds and
rattles. I’m watered by longing, knocking my
head into the wall, on the ground, or I burn, burn,
folded up on the couch.  With my body and my

mind I experience the delight of all those tormented
before me, or I lie in bed dismantled.
Saints have always been annihilated in strange ways.
Man has always licked his lips because of God.

–Read at St. Lydia’s on November 21