Ceauşescu’s Thumbtacks

 
Everybody carried a hand
grenade in their mouth,
 
so we all had to keep silent
if we didn’t want them to go off.
 
Once in a while you would hear
a muffled blast in the middle of the night
and you knew it was someone
who couldn’t help it anymore and
started to tell the truth
in their sleep.
 
Tell-tales/ snitches/ rats/ sales/ that reached/
the ridge/ of our/ readiness –
 
at the edge of the world
I said yes every
body carried a hand
grenade in their
mouth.
 
Silence/ at sea/ soaring/ over/ the steer/ing cree/d –
 
indeed every deed pushing up speed will lead
and will feed my need for a slid –
ead
en would de
fy fi
ght
ing eve
ry foe
car
r
y
ing a hand
gren
ad
e in their mouth –
somewhere in the south
a river flooded its own mouth
with air
with a snare sa fair that it
didn’t spare
the lair
of all
air:
 
holding a hand
grenade for a
jade
d do
or
man
man
ia for the py
ro
man
ia a
gain
 
(Endless drizzling rains in the west on TV day and night; floods down the Mureş –
 
no body found still
empty ground
floating cows & cars.
 
Grazing through crowded gruesome footages on all
channels – and fat prattling leaders, vaca
tion ads, the spring stubborn sun in the south:
drenched pockets, burnt sockets – touching coins)