Throat And Column

I
The Pharmacy is located 
in Montserrat neighborhood 
in Igualada city
a secondary and provincial city
if you type the name in Google 
you can only find 
cheap apartments
all badly insulated
made quickly 
in concrete

Homais is not the father of anyone
might be the father of another town 
of another century
he also has his elbows resting 
on the counter

It’s a place
used to be a home 
for gypsies
now it’s all full of bars 
and people waiting in the corners
looking at the street 
as if something important might happen
but nothing happens 
the crisis turned the place 
into ashes

A guy that wants 
the lower thing after metadona
says:
don’t make me say it again
and the counter 
doesn’t want to be turned
into an antagonistic place
or a normative one
so 
everybody provides what is asked

The old gypsies come inside 
all broken 
now that they don’t have a united family
anymore
they use walking sticks

The pensioners are 
the second most famous clients 
they are accused of collapsing the economy
they are accused of keeping pills at home 
hoarding them
letting them expire

During the night 
Homais closes the crystal door
It has a small hole that can be opened
then 
the thin crystal becomes the counter
— no room to lie down with your elbows

But it’s safe

Homais says that 
it’s fucking hard to say ‘no’ to drug addicts 
but it’s not your business 
anymore
and now with the crystal door 
it’s easier

Everybody always prefers 
the counter 
but 
during the night
he prefers the crystal door

Bar counter
kitchen counter 
drugs counter
no 
no
check-out counter 
for counting 
accounting 
and delivering

He has his elbows resting on the counter

The counter 
is one of those types of furniture 
that carries money
from one side 
there’s demand
from the other 
answers

The pills are placed in the middle
next to coins
they look so similar

One counter is made of plastic
PVC that can be piled
and carried to another place

A vinyl layer covers it 
making a curve 
— you can transport that counter to France
or you can keep it in Montserrat neighborhood 
until the clients stop demanding

But they never stop

So they’ve got another counter 
with a showcase
wooden skeleton base
sorry 
plywood
glass on the top 
through it you can see displayed:
pots 
screw top pots 
pipettes
pipettes with rubber stoppers
syringes
pressure tap syringes
and other objects 
to carry liquid 
that it’s better to keep cold

It’s the coughing
it’s the saliva 
that swims on the air
and the demands 
the complaints 
and the sniffling noises
and the other waiting in a white shirt 
that the germs won’t get through

Those silent liquids are the clear division
in the counter
— all the rest is fiction 
and leaves people without memory

But of course 
when they come in
they’re fucking nervous 
— it’s not easy to live in a cheap apartment 
made of concrete
and go inside a white space 
without mucus
when you are full of mucus 
and other germs

The walking stick of the gypsy 
sounds perfect on the street
where nobody has the balls 
to say 
it’s my home
anymore

Young gypsies take psychoactives
and don’t walk on the concrete 
they just stay at home

full text here: http://www.claudiapagesrabal.com/?throatcolumn


Throat and Column

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