When a Car Gets Into an Accident

väliotsikko

Poem   Background   Sources

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Finnish

When life
is but
death when the soul wanders
like a gipsy, when
the doctor gets sick, when war takes
one's virginity, and when
home-brew gives bounty when the body is
a rhythmical instrument, when the violin
demands everything. When
music changes country – and
continent, and when the blocks
open when composing
compulsatorily when mother doesn't
know how to be a
mother when word
becomes
flesh when the novel dies, and when –
when an emptiness is halved –
the shadows dictate
what you're allowed to speak of. – When the North
discovered a new world, when
reason took over
when the word "impossible"
went off the rail when the book's contents are
nothing but
air, and when,
when warranty becomes an object of dispute, we – read:
men – have feelings, when the President's statesman stature was more
emphasized when – when genetics
replaced the crystal ball (when Pekka Kuusisto
was a pop star) – the art served
the tyrant's best. When Clarke and Kubrick
co-operated. When. When a minority
is chosen as a scapegoat when the Capital
overtakes the rest of Finland when the artwork
awakens feelings when the culture's thin skin
cracks when suddenly
the whole world
is on your shoulders, the small begins
to grow
big
and
when the whole city is turned into a Funfair.


1995-2001