Inert Tarn Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

An inert tarn


In the pond of pleasant memories, a duckling paddled
like an unwanted thought of a spring wedding in Brussel.
Flat stones skipped on the pond in the night, quacked
refused to spit out half-chewed toothpicks forgotten.
Expel the duck and send it abroad to the Saragossa Sea
to a shadowy barren island in the stream
where the monster Amnesia lives; you must be warned
keep away if the ogre gets hold of you, it will not eat
the unwanted, but also the memory of those you loved.