The Absence of Pain

by Biljana Petrova
(Skopje, Macedonia)

A door in the floor

A window on the ceiling

And a lifetime of pain reeling

Trapped in the careless arrangement

In this cathedral of pain.

The architects are missing

The archways are kissing the stone cold walls

And the spires aspire to no desire

Suffering is a painted glass reflecting its own

Following, a congregation of lonely people

Shying away the other lonely people

For fear of false attribution.



The absence of pain is evidence.

Evidence missing is no proof that pain

Never got trapped in the awkwardly positioned door.

And the shadow darkening the hall is just another flaw

In what was supposed to be a temple to analgesia.

It's no good to remember.

And it makes no heart grow fonder.

It's plain absence, covered up by crafty design.



Echoes are portents of good news.

One day all this will be meaningless.

It is meaningless even now.

Once the eye refuses to be blind to see

It will all come back to me.

Pain free.