Tuesday, 17 April 2018

Lars Gustafsson: 'Vid Evelyns bageri i Norberg'

at evelyn’s bakery in norberg


In Norberg, early on a May morning
the scent of lime blossom and elderflower
from old trees close to old houses can
float weightlessly on the scent of new-baked bread

There is iron beneath us, much iron
immense bodies of ore,
an incalculable number of sleeping grains
that silently twist the compass out of joint

The world goes out as soon as night is over
And undergoes silent transformations
But someone has to be there at sunrise
To knead soft dough between strong hands.

And the wave of heat that surges out
when the oven door is opened
is the youngest sibling of the white exhalation
of long-since mouldered blast-furnace eruptions

The world undergoes sombre transformations
Iron can become swords or sledgehammers
Many swords Many sledgehammers
Many dead Much bread


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