Miroslav Holub

Haemophilia/Los Angeles

And so it circulates

from the San Bernardino Freeway

to the Santa Monica Freeway and

down to the San Diego Freeway and

up to the Golden State Freeway,

and so it circulates

in the vessels of the marine creature,

transparent creature,

unbelievable creature in the light

of the southern moon

like the footprint

of the last foot in the world,

and so it circulates

as if there were no other music

except Perpetual Motion,

as if there were no conductor

directing an orchestra of black angels

without a full score:

out of the grand piano floats

a pink C-sharp in the upper octave, 

out of the violin

blood may trickle at any time,

and in the joints of the trombone

there swells a fear of the tiniest staccato,

as if there were no Dante

in a wheelchair,

holding a ball of cotton to his mouth,

afraid to speak a line

lest he perforate the meaning,

as if there were no genes

except the genes for defects 

and emergency telephone calls,

and so it circulates

with the full, velvet hum of the disease,

circulates all hours of the day,

circulates all hours of the night

to the praise of non-clotting,

each blood cell carrying

four molecules of hope

that it might be something

totally different

from what it is.

fr. Vanishing Lung Syndrome

tr. David Young and Dana Hábová

[London: Faber and Faber, 1990]