BUCHAREST CONNECTIONS: ROMANIAN BODIES Poem by Răzvan Ţupa

From a political point of view this is happiness: burning all together without a beginning in a huge low budget movie Just perfect to chew Just the perfect condition for assuming anything except presence Beggars with D&G caps wave and smile sadly assuring that life can be lived and devoured Cheap hats on official buildings sing: Bend your breath because this is an olfactory city it's memory, just a maze of smells and it is all eatable This is history and folds on clothes that people keep wearing and most of the time this is the realm where garments wear people down: The whole world in human form Everyone has personal names for public places, but here every place marks individual flavour for each passerby And it is always something from somewhere else Mannequins with neat plastic eyes watch the show from shop windows as they rule the next fashion trend: We've tried these tailored dreams last year people are so old fashioned, they say, they insist Actually this is the most expensive place to die So if you eat you'll be hungry if you drink you'll be thirsty and this is our policy: whatever you need we'll name an official to take care of you Like in a photo, like in a movie we are the real Romanians, we never swallow, we never use our teeth just follow the signs they are never right but error is human at least and tends to get a religious meaning up, just look: all the sky is an unofficial flag with strange symbols inventing unpronounceable words All you've known of communism hurts here And we make fun of it Sometimes it's got a nice financial face and speaks in funny ways, because of Dracula's straight teeth (of course): each tooth - a tear, as big as the palace with 1000 glass breasts that rise right in the middle of this cinematographic mouth feeds excuses like an African mother with American shoes and aboriginal beliefs. Just like anyone in Eurasia just laughing until snow bursts in flames and dancing until late in the summer. And then, one more time We're sorry and do it again