Helsinki

 

The details don’t matter.

I could recount the whole episode

except they would not lodge, second or third hand

as well as the tick, burying head, shoulders and mouth-parts

as you were trying on

in the changing rooms of a smart

Helsinki clothes outlet, that possible summer dress,

finding, cosy between both breasts a creature

already investigating.

 

Instantly losing interest in new outfits,      

ramifications came into my mind

chiming  incidents, semi-lethal 

like being arrested in Madrid for looking suspicious,

or detained for a double-punched ticket on Métro de Paris.

 

It is not unjust, ticks hitching a ride

with the intention of visiting Helsinki.

It could happen to any native Finn or guest of one.

But we got out of that store in a hurry,

which is symptomatic of how life goes on,

through surgeries of daily events,

shudders of arrival,

finding your way around with the minimum of fuss,

and a welcome like snow when it comes,

soundless and serene,

a changing room curtain drawn back, flight from a tick,

the freezing of the Baltic.