TODAY YOU LOOK SO… Poem by Peter Verhelst

Today you look so remarkably intact.
That smile of yours
as if a parakeet is climbing over your face.

For the first time in years the ball joint is movable, the head
rotates in the cup again, the tendons of the smile
tighten again, while you are saying: do you remember,
we were lying on a rock looking out across the bay and we knew
it could never be more beautiful than this

and then we looked into the sun.
Ships sailed past, as if they wanted to move a mountain.
I took hold of your face the way you put hands round the head
of a dog and with your thumbs stroke the corners of their eyes back
and the velvet of the ears in the direction of the sheen.

Does this make you happy?

On the rock the dog is still curled up, its legs
are folded under its body, nose to its tail. Look
how it trembles on the rock as if the shadow of a panting little tree.

Such a shame we never really took the time to…