ΤΣΑΡΛΣ ΣΙΜΙΤΣ!

CHARLES SIMIC

PARADISE MOTEL

Millions were dead; everybody was innocent.

I stayed in my room. The President

Spoke of war as of a magic love potion.

My eyes were opened in astonishment.

In a mirror my face appeared to me

Like a twice-canceled postage stamp.

I lived well, but life was awful.

there were so many soldiers that day,

So many refugees crowding the roads.

Naturally, they all vanished

With a touch of the hand.

History licked the corners of its bloody mouth.

On the pay channel, a man and a woman

Were trading hungry kisses and tearing off

Each other's clothes while I looked on

With the sound off and the room dark

Except for the screen where the color

Had too much red in it, too much pink.