WATCH OUT

Aggiornamento: 13 mag 2025

link to the Italian translation

Brother: Watch out. The big guy is capable of anything.

Sister: Anything?

Bro: He could just clobber us.

Sis: Us? Why?

Bro: He doesn't need a reason. He's big. That’s the reason.

Sis: What has he got against us? Against you?

Bro: He objects to me being defenceless.

Sis: You're imagining.

Bro: You had better do some imagining too.

Sis: Think of the facts.

Bro: Think of him lifting his boot. Think of hearing the squish.

Sis: You're being crazy. You make him crazy to suit.

Bro: I’m crazy not to be stomped on.

Sis: Start again, one step at a time.

Bro: I've started and I'm running.

Sis: So the big guy twists his lip at you.

Bro: I'm already out of there, chasing my breath.

Sis: For you a twisted lip is a snarl.

Bro: For me the road says hurry on down.

Sis: Gee, a snarl, you tell yourself, this guy's a sabertooth.

Bro: I don't have to be told. I'm telling you that fast forward’s the thing.

Sis: But you ought to look at his face. That's the place to begin.

Bro: He has a face?

Sis: It shows his feelings.

Bro: Those hairs in his nose holes?

Sis: The laugh lines around his mouth.

Bro: You want a character sketch? My legs are pumping. I'm in the next county.

Sis: Start to understand him. Look him in the eye.

Bro: I can't stop and stare. He'd scoop me up.

Sis: Admit that he's human.

Bro: You give him my congratulations. He’d humanize me bones and all.

Sis: You want me to imagine. So let’s imagine him.

Bro: A crunching windmill. Blades for arms and legs.

Sis: His face?

Bro: Stiletto teeth. Hungry eyes wrapping me up. His big snoot sniffing like a triphammer.

Sis: He's your big bad wolf.

Bro: To be running or not to be.

Sis: The real trouble is elsewhere.

Bro: He'll reach out a big paw and pull me back.

Sis: His woman is the trouble.

Bro: She’s not his.

Sis: Full of spite, a sneak.

Bro: Her?

Sis: She's the kind to come up from behind and find your kidney with something sharp.

Bro: Not her.

Sis: When the pain makes you scream, her nose is in the air looking past you.

Bro: I wouldn't think so.

Sis: She pushes you into the dark without a word. You aren't there.

Bro: My son, for example.

Sis: My daughter, for example.

Bro: It's all so clear.

Sis: It jumps out.

Bro: Just ask my daughter.

Sis: Have him tell you, my son.

(Istanbul, 27 February 2000)

Cover image: pop banana by psyducktherapy on Deviant Art