from Deathwatch

 

Since the first day
everyone waits
for someone to touch
their center

Some
tried to come
but didn’t get very far

Perhaps we aren’t
supple enough

*

Meeting is out of the question

To each their envelope

*

Don’t think
that animals
feel any different from us

They wait
for someone to put his hands inside of them

It is dark
within the flesh

*

One never caresses
a body’s interior

*

We think
that someone will come and help us
restrain ourselves

This is a mistake

The body divides into the body

*

[…]

*

Each day
a step toward the solid

We won’t feel a thing

All our lives
we wanted to avoid ourselves

It was too painful inside

*

We will die
without understanding anything

We can’t do otherwise

We didn’t want a body

*

All water
will erode
even ours

 

Jean-Louis Giovannoni
from Garder le mort, Editions Unes, 1991