Jasmina Tacheva peels us an onion.

Wittgenstein’s Onion
By Jasmina Tacheva

I’m undressing you
the way Wittgenstein
unzips the secrets of his onion

–slowly and uncarefully kiss by kiss
illusion by illusion

the proto-truth,
the one that needs no proof
because it is my own creation,
will hatch inside of you

I will find your center
the center of my universe
in which I’m but an electron

All the wonders
all the clichés
in the world
exhaust and die

before your body
that begins in my eyes.

I’m peeling slowly–
what part of you
did I fall in love with first–
this finger
that sunspot?

I’m peeling–
“And by looking for the essence,
you end up empty-handed”–
paraphrasing Wittgenstein–

When I’m done,
my hands will be empty,
my heart’ll overflow–

A self-deception
that makes me
undress you each night
and be happy
for no reason at all