sometimes a woman....

"sometimes a woman stands up during supper
and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,
because of a church that stands somewhere in the east.
and her children say blessings on her as if she were
dead.

and another woman, who remains inside her own house,
dies there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,
so that her children have to go far out into the world
toward that same church, which she forgot."



by: rainer maria rilke
translated by: robert bly
adapted by: jessa walters ("she" for "he")