Extract Mette Moestrup

Red light

 

By Mette Moestrup. Translated by Claus Bech

Confuse not beautiful with gorgeous, suffer
for the difference. Like that between loving
and thinking “I love”. Avoid imperatives
such as: Love me. No
No one gets shy from being bitten,
and having loved just now
will never be the same
as loving right now.
We just love
to use words like love, beloved
oh, present, past, the noun, the possessive,
my love. If?
If not? I feel RED.          red light
But LIGHTER is on my lips.                red light
My lighter is red.                  red light district
And transparent.                     red light stop
I’m light not light tonight.
Feeling so grammatical tonight.
What is it you want? Would you like me
not to ask what you want?
This situation is out of control, this situation
Is not me, I just relate to it.
I´m bad at it and it makes me feel bad
like one (too many), a bad man,
livid in the face, swift-footed. But I realize
you’d understand me if you could, you know that?
I feel: red and my limitation, and red,
and that it’s mutual, and that there´s a difference.
“Do you love me?” “Yes.”
It says nothing about what yes means to you.