As a Girl and a Man

Pahn and Aiks have come to stay

 in a house in Turkey

(which he keeps confusing with Spain)

To get there they have driven steep

 gravel and dirt roads through woods

and at some point snow

(which he remembers driving through before

though it may have been  a movie            or photographs)

At the house    

 it is mostly bare     and rather odd shaped

 inside               There is hardly any

furniture

and the light has a greenish hue 

For a while

Pahn and Aiks are alone

but soon

                the old man who owns

the house     comes in with his wife

     who is unconscious 

His wife is a small shrub

that is withered

and has many small holes

  in her trunk    where the bark has died 

The old man asks Pahn

if he can help her             (knowing

 that Pahn is good   

with plants) Pahn says

that he can’t

get to the heart without breaking

the stem             and he is afraid that breaking

the stem will destroy her      

He says

to put her roots in water

                                     and wait and see…             …Later

he looks over

to the counter where she is

   and she has begun to sprout

leaves on some of the branches 

Pahn considers pruning

the branches           that do not have leaves

but upon closer inspection             he sees

      that they also have         live buds   Soon

she turns into an old woman            

and wakes up…

…Pahn is a little girl             and

she leaves            

the house looking

                        for the airport              She doesn’t know

which way to go        but thinks

perhaps she might find it anyway…

…She arrives  

at the building             (airport? city hotel?)

and after wandering

around a while             she happens

upon a suitcase that appears

to be empty

(earlier she had been bemoaning

 the fact that they only had backpacks

 not real suitcases)

While she is inspecting it

discovering            

  that it is also   actually   a backpack after all

a couple comes along             and says

it is theirs             subtly

implying that she was stealing it 

         They also say

that is has

some important medicine

that the wife needs 

Instead of reprimanding             the man

changes tone and suggests

that the three of them

could have some kind of sex 

but Pahn             as this little girl

                                                says

 that she doesn’t want sex

and leaves

and goes downstairs and outside  

Outside the hotel     Pahn

 is now an adult man again

and he is thinking

that actually he does

want to have sex

but not with the man…

…Back at the house

there is a cousin

or nephew

or brother            

      of the old man who is now

in an alcoholic stupor—

they take him outside

 (in the snow?)

and somehow he is revived

 

He is thirsty and debates

whether he wants

    a drink of water

 or alcohol  finally

    he decides

that he doesn’t need alcohol

and chooses water

 

He tries to drink from a puddle

and through the eyes of Pahn                 he sees

fish swimming there …