28 To V. (inner dialogue)
In the evening,
you told me what you had never told anybody,
what you would never -- you said this -- tell anybody:
'In the crowd
where anyone can look straight into my eyes,
I am alone
and I want to be left alone.'
'I am alone
and I want to be left alone
in my building
when I overhear the sounds my neighbours
make in secret from me.
On all sides.
I wake up in the dark
to see a man peeping
though the crack in the ceiling at my naked body
the same way a man looked greedily at
my naked body as a boy in a public shower
many crowds ago.'
'On a trading floor
where I do not even have
four thin cardboard panels around me -- only a desk,
and anyone can hear my every word,
I am alone
and I want to be left alone.'
'With my friends
who' -- you said this -- 'are crawling up and down each other,
and who ask me why I don't pick up my phone,
I am alone
and I want to be left alone.'
'I am afraid,' -- you said this --
'Because of your presence,
I could not sleep.
I just lay next to you for the entire night,' --
Looking greedily at my naked body
and, then, straight into my eyes
in the morning.
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