When I Married Halld R Laxness

I watched the froth go down and the yellow liquid rise to meet it. I twisted the glass around and it tipped over and spilled on his arthritic knee. I looked to the side and didn’t apologize. His beautiful bony fingers flicked off the foam in separate particles as if it was incidental lint he had finally noticed.

The decision is yours now.

He rubbed the liquid into his pant leg. I sighed. Either decision I make will kill something.

And so, you want to hang in this ether land forever?

Yes.

And if I pulled your hair?

And if I scalded your mouth?

And if I made a teepee of birch billets with you in the centre?

Look at me.

No.

He went away.

Next night the phone rang.

I’ll meet you at Glacier and First Point. You must be exact.

I’ll be there for three evenings.

For three nights I wore myself ragged but couldn’t find where.

Friday evening the doorbell rang. He handed me two books by Aksel Sandemose. I put my fingers exactly where his warm fingerprints still lingered on the top book and closed the door. I read and waited.

(There was a tidal wave and a woman went from window to window with a candle in her hand as her house floated out the bay. They rescued her in St. Lawrence.)

When you are ready, if ever, light your own candle.

Two years later, my hand shook as I held the match. His hair had greyed around the temples and he crippled shyly.

Five years later, two babies look hauntingly like him. He is chopping wood in the backyard. He stops.

Look at me. I fooled you years ago. Glacier is in Iceland and I tore out all the pages where it was written in that book. Do you regret that we called the babies Abstract and Zero? Come feel Aunt Hilda and Didymus under my fingernails.

His gentle laugh ripped the night sky, and I got pregnant again.

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Poems in English

An Arab Shepherd Is Searching For His Goat On Mount Zion by Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Иехуда (Ludwig ) Amichai ‏יהודה עמיחי‏ Амихай (Pfeuffer)
A Precise Woman by Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Иехуда (Ludwig ) Amichai ‏יהודה עמיחי‏ Амихай (Pfeuffer)
A Pity, We Were Such A Good Invention by Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Иехуда (Ludwig ) Amichai ‏יהודה עמיחי‏ Амихай (Pfeuffer)
A Jewish Cemetery In Germany by Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Иехуда (Ludwig ) Amichai ‏יהודה עמיחי‏ Амихай (Pfeuffer)
A Dog After Love by Yehuda Amichai by Yehuda Иехуда (Ludwig ) Amichai ‏יהודה עמיחי‏ Амихай (Pfeuffer)
Straw sandal half sunk by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Sparrow singing by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Ploughing the land by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Old well by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Not quite dark yet by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
My arm for a pillow by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Listening to the moon by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Lighting one candle by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Yosa Buson – Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Hokku Poems in Four Seasons by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
His Holiness the Abbot by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
He’s on the porch by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Harvest moon by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Evening wind by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村
Elegy to the Old Man Hokuju by Yosa Buson by Yosa Ёса Buson Бусон 与謝蕪村