Electric Verses

TOMI KONTIO (b. 1966) first collection of poems, Tanssisalitaivaan alla (Under the Ballroom Sky) was published in 1993. Since that he has published three more. In addition to these volumes of poerty, he has written eight works of prose. He was awarded twice the J. H. Erkko Prize, and the Finlandia Junior Prize in 2000 for his juvenile novel Keväällä isä sai siivet (In Spring Dad Got Wings).

THE SUBURBAN ROMANTIC


	Take me across the mirror-waters; the silver ring in the quagmire as a dewdrop on a reed glazes the twilight into morning. Seize me like a sickness, for mornings do not comfort me or antiphons, the birds' motets, but the steps with which you lift my image free, and a drop of water; your knee circles in my thighs like a planet; take me across the mirror-waters.