Twins of Vim


An empty endless street.
Empty houses.
Empty rooms.
An empty man with an open mouth
like an empty nest
is fortified in rapid succession with empty space.

A man mounted on a woman.
Two naked women fight one another with old brooms...
Stools with tentacles.
A bread-skull on a shelf.
A human heart instead of a sponge.
Persons more extinguished than an extinguished kerosene lamp
vanish in a black tunnel.
A second man mounted on a woman
rides up at full gallop
and shouts out his sensational discovery:
a powder that will turn broad daylight into deepest night
and that he will demonstrate immediately.

Horses motionless on a raft
in a street covered with white confetti
wait for the thawing of an echo.

Mummified kisses lie about
on a hiccupping chair.
At the slightest touch the chair emits a coarse noise
due to the passage of air through the glottis.

A beggar covered from head to foot
with a black and foul-smelling beard
sells keys to the door
that opens into the endless nudity of infinite light.
A flower disguised in flesh and bones
sells mannikins as amulets
decked out in their loveliest finery.
A dark angel sells compasses
for finding one's way to heaven.

In each drawer of a large glass chiffonnier
a large man is sleeping
disguised as a moth.

On a marriage bed among the powderpuffs of fringe
and incrustations of Venetian lace
lies a glazed stomach
that reflects twins of vim.

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