Why you smiling, you in that chair
made of glass?
Why you smiling, breathing that air
like it's glass?
At dawn I climbed the mountain
to look down
for nothing else
than to look down
on something.
And you,
you were smiling somewhere
thinking, I'm sure, 'what a
lost cause' I was.
And I was.
And you were smiling down below
the cold and clouds
below the rock and ice.
No avalanche would change
that.
And I smiled too, sometimes
when I could climb above things
and think of you
down in the belly of it all
smiling.
'You strong' they say.
But I'm not and never have
been. I need to get away
to understand, I need an
escape just to smile.
O the miles and miles
I've traveled just to
smile, and you?
You smiled at home
washing the dishes
fighting away tears
and cursing through
your teeth, and I was
never so strong
as that.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
The opening lines provide the context. Sitting on a chair made of glass, smiling when breathing in air like glass. That sounds like hard sharp pain. You've painted images of two inextricably linked people who find the ability to 'smile, ' to live in opposing ways. She (who I assume has limited abilities due to illness?) smiles and appreciates the small things in life while the speaker in the poem must climb Mt. Everest to smile and feel happy. I love the line, O the miles and miles I've traveled just to smile, and you? The final stanza pulled at my heart. I understand the pain and the desire to smile through it. That is a different kind of strength from the physical ability to climb a mountain. Thanks for sharing your poetry.
Thank you for your kind words Pamela. There is an (un) fortunate unity in pain I think, in that we can both/all understand it and yet require very different ways in which to cope. Life is sometimes a tug-of-war and the rope is our words.