Tuesday 1 March 2022

Thor Sørheim: 'Stabburet'

 

Stabburet, farmhouse in Feios, 1966

The raised storehouse

 

The storehouse at the top of the ridge holds a town

in position between the corner stones. It is night

and the lights from the highrise buildings and railway station

are stretched out like a film screen under the wooden floor.

 

A yellow ambulance moves along with flashing

howls, a hen party in the park is suffering from collective

hiccups, the traffic lights change sides, as always, and the planes

graze the storehouse steps before ending on the scrapheap.

 

In former times the outdoor storehouse was the guarantee

of life after darkness fell. Throughout the long

winters the cook fetched red hams, brown potatoes

and green apples, the mice tried in vain to leap

 

over the storehouse gap. This building could feed five thousand

if people were in need, in spring its shelves were empty. Life

had been victorious yet again, the walls took a breather

before the next autumn, now the empty larder overrides

 

the idea that the newly raised town lives its own life

between the motorways and the fashion industry. I pause

to look at the pitch-black edifice which soon will rock

to its foundations. In a while the earth will rise once more.

 

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