CC Robinson

the kafka variations - part one
 
For nothing yet has happened.
Franz Kafka
 

1.
 
In which room are you? Does the mirror rattle,
is nothing fixed?
 
He walks the streets as if they led somewhere.
How many labyrinths and where are they?
 
Can only by being lost can you eventually
be found? According to whom?
 
The low rumble of the Minotaur in sleep
awakens us all.
 
2.
 
Who will bring your soup when you stoke the fires?
 
How many courtyards to cross before you reach
the smoke and din?
 
Behind his back he holds the minor key. Once over the fence
the choice is his to keep.
 
The naked visions and flashlight, pie warming,
dog racing and the mice scratching at midnight.
 
Is one illegal act worth the many
and how many?
 
No one entered, no-one left.
 
The vigil is kept along the centre road.
 
3.
 
The years grow colder.
 
Do not follow the dogs leading you astray
into the mountains of no return. 
 
It is pointless to deliver coal to these regions. 
No one has a match or kindling
and paper is put to other uses,
flushing down the frozen drain.
 
All is eclipsed.

Copyright © Colin Campbell Robinson 2016

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Colin Campbell Robinson is an Australian artist currently living and working in the Celtic extremity of Kernow. Recently his work has appeared in Otoliths, BlazeVox 15, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Blithe Spirit and e-ratio among others. Knives Forks and Spoons Press will be publishing his collection Blue Solitude - a self-portrait in six scenarios in January 2017.