Like mountains - on this brow
Laurels of praise.
'I can't sing!'
- 'You will!' - 'Sound
(Put me on a diet
of flour!)
Like milk -
Is gone from my breast.
Empty. Dry.
In full-blown spring?
I feel like a twig.'
- 'That's an old song!
Drop it, don't blabber!'
'From now on I'd better -
Pound gravel!'
- 'All the more reason to sing!'
'Am I a bullfinch,
To sing
Day in and day out?'
- 'Even if you can't,
My bird, sing!
Out of spite!'
'What if I can't
put two lines together?'
-'When could - anyone?!' -
'It's torture!' - 'Bear it!'
'A mown meadow -
My throat!' 'Then wheeze:
That's a sound, too!'
'It's lions' business
Not women's.' - 'Children's:
Though disembowelled -
Orpheus still sang!'
'So, even in the grave?'
- 'Under a headstone, too.'
'I can't sing!'
- 'Sing about that!
Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/conversation-with-a-genius/
