What to take, what to leave. why to take it, why to leave it

Town on Fire

Just before I would set it on fire,
I would yell, Get out of the houses!
But don't take anything with you!
And I would stay motionless—
shadow
and sign of light,
watching
how everyone would come out running,
dressed only in skins,
in their own skin.
Winged, they would leave
furniture the landscape of so many quarrels,
kitchens the site of so many shortages,
those same walls with their boredom
confronting
all those little shelves of books unread
for lack of time,and time the color
of cold bread.
Now fly! I would shout,
blowing in order to lift them,
and they would fly, all of them,
without ever looking
over their shoulders.

—Eugen Jebeleanu

"Town on Fire" from Secret Weapon, published by Coffee House Press, translated from the Romanian by Matthew Zapruder and Radu Ioanid. Copyright © 2008 by Tudor Jebeleanu and Florica Vieru.

This was this week's "e-verse" poem of the week. (Go here to subscribe.) So perfect as I get ready to move, as I'm spending so much time thinking about what to move and how to move it and whether it's worth moving.