SALOME

she looks like a deer that’s drunk from sacred springs

to stamp the time with a bloody mark

her light steps not making any sound

she looks like a statue with a marble skin when

she sits and watches the course of events

she’s a crystal looking at herself in the moon mirror

looking for the reflection of her own shadow

she looks a like a candle that has never burned

she is here to unlock the doors and let death in

to ask for the one thing her mother’s not entitled to 

with her fresh child’s flesh and stubbornness she demands

she comes in dressed in moonlight

in that great hour when the scriptures come true

 she’s here to utter the words which God himself wished for

and signed up with another’s blood: I want John’s head.

give it to her

Translated by Hristo Dimitrov / Edited by Tom Edward Phillip