Camera Obscura

Camera Obscura

A stairway leading nowhere

people

taking them up and down as if

ignoring this fact

A bed of dark purple tulips creates

a disturbing background for those

descending

At a distance the husky sound of a lighthouse suggests

an ocean

dimmed and covered with fog

Sitting by a rugged dune a shape or maybe two seem to be

facing the sea

Meanwhile, the unpleasant touch of an hand

too close, too intimate

becoming super real – I

close my eyes and the pressure blows

sand onto the image

clouding it - just as the people

consuming their time uselessly, not even

noticing

an astounding tunisian

cat – green eyes, half closed

and sleek fur -

lying at the third step

resonates each and every foot

passing by

his life spanning

the realm of those individuals

whose feet

walk their shadow

I stop breathing

to understand one of the shapes

turning its face to me so I can

see - myself

if I want to - the sea

repeating its dying

as the morning brightness

invades this room

the silky touch of curled silence

brings me back

you – milk, rye, gray hair

loose – now

that worms

crawl underneath

stairways, people

fall, decaying over the dark

purple tulips – stoically still beautiful

and the cat

vanishes somewhere between

those two.

© 2016, José Eduardo Coelho