I switched on the computer not so long ago and found an ungrammatical poem in an email from India.

Why there was a girl sitting at a grotty internet cafe not far from Delhi writing me a poem without capital letters is another story, but we had crossed paths half a year ago, and since then the emails I had written her had been a largely unadulterated litany of neurotic bitching about my inability get a job and fears of failing at uni.

I've been bitching far too much this year, and have resolved to stop it, or at least slow it down.

The girl wrote that Buddhism and high altitudes had been doing amazing things for her, and she felt a long way from being able to relate to my grappling with life in the souless western world.

She said that all my angst made her think of a poem, which she wrote down for me from memory, presumably translating it from Hebrew as she went.

i fear i will have no money for bread

and without bread the hairs and teeth will fall off

probably

and i'm twenty six

and i did not get married

I'm generally no good with poems, too impatient perhaps, but I liked this one, something about the sound and simplicity of it, I don't know.

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