NECK
(neuralgic spot)
The neck is the entrance to Mycenae
(all tombs are not for the public).
Out of the rubble of the subconscious this body's history
contains upheavals, front and back
and a turnover of valuable objects
art-not-for-art's-sake:
the twentieth century appears without warning!
This general confusion is not really adequate
to subvert the essential image of woman-
even her neck contains its challenge
"In certain cases
the archetype is harmful for..." or
"The cult begins from organic matter, is never lost
but transforms itself" etc
this is news to bring us joy
youth of form (Modigliani)
sprouts of beauty of a new kind
- and Tzvetaeva's invisible fingers
caressing the back of the long hot winter -
protest is subdued by mimicry
all-in-all
despair has become antigrammar -
associations on the neck
are a way to knowledge
of yourself, of something other -
feel the pulsating cleft, a compressed hope
deep as a gorge where a contrabass vibrates
and the muscular argonauts
push vigorously in their quest:
the entrance into a woman begins from very far off
free will
is its beginning!
Translated by Ilija Casule and Thomas Shapcott
