"Mr. Saw" & "The Inventor"
by Arvis Viuls
Translated from the Latvian by Jayde Will
Mr. Saw
One morning upon awakening he understood,
that actually his entire life
he had wanted to be a saw and nothing else,
and he decided to follow his dreams.
“Starting today call me Mr. Saw,”
Mr. Saw announced to the world,
“why hide it, I’ve always
felt small, sharp teeth deep inside me.”
In order to show the seriousness of his intentions,
the first thing Mr. Saw sawed
was the most precious thing he had – his wife,
who then become Mrs. Saw.
“You don’t love me anymore,” she said,
as a part of her cried,
and another part already put on her shoes,
so she could leave Mr. Saw.
Out of anger Mr. Saw
sawed his work table in half.
Now it was like two chairs,
but broken and with just two legs,
broken like Mr. Saw’s metallic heart,
out of grief he sawed and sawed
everything at hand, until everything at hand –
his life, the whole world was broken.
The last thing Mr. Saw
sawed into pieces was himself,
and they all wandered off
each his own way.
And everything, that remained, which was nothing,
was left hanging in the middle of emptiness,
like a chandelier, which someone has forgotten to turn
off before leaving the house.
The Inventor
A man invented the wheel –
a wheel about a man’s height,
with all the spokes and a hub,
and everything else that you need.
He showed it to the village elders.
“What is that? What does it do?”
the village elders asked.
The man scratched his head.
“Perhaps it’s possible to move
overland with it somehow?” he pondered.
“Perhaps if we had two of these,
it would be like having two big, round legs?”
“But if we had four,” he exclaimed,
“it would be like a horse on four legs!
I just don’t know about the measurements,” he said,
“wouldn’t it be too big?”
“Hm… move overland with it, you say?”
said the oldest of the village elders,
stroking the grayness in his beard.
“Then maybe something could come out of it.”
The village’s dogs and children ran behind
the wheel, which was barreling down the hill –
with the outstretched arms and legs
of the inventor tied to the wheel spokes.
Photo cover by Julia Dragan