This poem
Allows no entry
For other poets.
Whatever you pontificated
About a jungle with no trespassers
Applies to this poem too.
We were hobnobbing about
A poetry factory that produces
Value added poetry products.
It was then that you started blabbering
“Neruda … Neruda.”
There’s only one way to
Chop Neruda.
Write “Neruda.”
Raise a hack knife and
One chop
Two Cantos.*
Now,
I watch you getting shocked
At the sight of two Nerudas
In two Cantos
And laughter erupts in me.
(Note* With the permission of the author, the translator has tweaked the poem at this point.)
Jul 20, 2018
Jul 20, 2018 at 10:26 AM UTC
This poem
Allows no entry
For other poets.
Whatever you pontificated
About a jungle with no trespassers
Applies to this poem too.
We were hobnobbing about
A poetry factory that produces
Value added poetry products.
It was then that you started blabbering
“Neruda … Neruda.”
There’s only one way to
Chop Neruda.
Write “Neruda.”
Raise a hack knife and
One chop
Two Cantos.*
Now,
I watch you getting shocked
At the sight of two Nerudas
In two Cantos
And laughter erupts in me.
(Note* With the permission of the author, the translator has tweaked the poem at this point.)
Request permission to use this poem