The Old Book

After a long time
The past is arriving today
The dead woman reading in an ancient book

Paula wrote it
The book opened
- in the room of enmeshment

Like a big church register
Binding out of paperboard - soft and often touched
Hand dipped paper - fibrous, gray, strong

Nine squares on each side - lined with copper
Silver moons at every intersection
Filled with signs and symbols

Day after day she weaved her life into the book
created oriental ornaments
from turquoise colored ink

At the end of the book
little silver bags filled with pigment
hay-harvest red, autumn red, cardinals red, violet red

Stapled like a fan in the book cover:
dehydrated slices of sausage
- mummies out of the larder

At the far horizon the sun
the sky coloring with orange red
1850 - time of the sunset...