Lines for a Lockdown: ‘think of the word for “thunder” in seven languages’ #lockdownpoetry

Three Poems by Judas Roquín

Insomnia

In that wordless limbo before sleep falls,
when ancient fears come back
to eat away the smooth facade of silence,
think of the word for ‘thunder’ in seven languages,
then seven more,
and when you arrive at ukkonen in Finnish,
the silence which will consume you
will be, I promise you,
deeper than sleep, deeper than any dark.

Intersection

At the crossroads, I direct the road traffic
which comes at me from seventeen directions.
There are breakdowns, there are incidents, there are
accidents, the terrible crash, silence.

Only Seven To Remain Standing
    (sign on a bus)

Boarding the bus, I find myself hoping
that wherever  it goes, to Helsingfors or home,
across black fields, bare estuaries,
across the frozen wastes of the Sahara,
or into space, like a greenhouse on fire,
that I will be among
the seven to remain standing.

Translated by Alastair Reid

from The Collected Poems, edited by Tom Pow, Galileo Publishers, 2018.