In some earlier time
we agreed to be seen.
So we wouldn’t just be a breeze in the wind,
we dressed up in our bodies.
No bullets, scars, or wounds
can outweigh incorporeal being.
We came to feel the rain on our skin,
the coolness of churches and each other’s mouths.
To scent desire, or rotting
apples in an autumn orchard.
To be immersed in an icy source,
to chew a juicy mouthful, be buzzed on wine.
To allow a mosquito to fill up,
to lick the redness of a bite.
To help a blind man cross a river,
to help a lame man with his bags.
“Just look how strong my hands are!
I could dig out a tunnel
for us to hide in.”
“Just listen to how my heart beats!
I could dig out a tunnel
for us to survive.”
A tunnel deep under the earth,
connected to the sky.
And then, then I would shout
in a flash of wonder:
“Look, my love,
the world only begins there
where we thought it ends!”
Translation by Rimas Uzgiris of Indrė Valantinaitė’s “Tunelis”