Not only because it was plain maths without calculators

Just out of a popular Mexican film
in which beautiful people made love to each other,
the woman from the land of Hans Christian Andersen
is having tea with her boyfriend from the land of Dalai Lama

She is soon shifting to pursue a Masters,
and is going to see less and less of him
He is upbeat about his getting a job next to the university,
about being able to continue to sleep by her side for many more years to come

He is saying something...She cannot hear
this music from the land of elephants is too loud
But would listening help - how could they understand each other
Not only because that writer who loved peeling potatoes in his novel Women in Love said so...

She had met this cute little Buddha four years ago,
He was 19, she was 31, she was 31 after a 12 year old relationship
with a man from the land of Euphrates and Tigris...of Saddam Hussein
She had gone through his papers 12 years ago in the embassy-he was 5'10'',he was 31

Little Buddha shifts his gaze from Chicago Cubs on the giant screen
He is looking at her - her white wrinkled skin, her blond hair, her blue eyes
traces of cinnamon from the pastry on her lips...her lips quiver to tell him that
they would never understand each other,
Not only because it was plain maths without calculators,
but also because that writer roaming the streets of Prague said,
almost said, oh why did he say that in No Saints or Angels

For Ivan Klima, D.H. Lawrence
Picture : Anant A.