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The city’s all a-shining
Beneath a fickle sun,
A gay young wind’s a-blowing,
The little shower is done.
But the rain-drops still are clinging
And falling one by one—
Oh it’s Paris, it’s Paris,
And spring-time has begun.

I know the Bois is twinkling
In a sort of hazy sheen,
And down the Champs the gray old arch
Stands cold and still between.
But the walk is flecked with sunlight
Where the great acacias lean,
Oh it’s Paris, it’s Paris,
And the leaves are growing green.

The sun’s gone in, the sparkle’s dead,
There falls a dash of rain,
But who would care when such an air
Comes blowing up the Seine?
And still Ninette sits sewing
Beside her window-pane,
When it’s Paris, it’s Paris,
And spring-time’s come again.
jack of spades Dec 2016
what’s your favorite kind of flower?
mine’s a forget-me-not,
a fear settled deep in my chest
that remembering me might
not be for the best,
a knot in my stomach formed
from your stormcloud eyes
like summer skies.
like forget-me-nots.
loyalty and long-lasting
and pleading to remember me, forgetting.
december makes me forget sunny weather.
i think i’m kind of
in love with the sound of your voice,
and your smile,
which is dangerous because smiles
are always going to be the
worst kind of weakness.
i hope they don’t forget me.
i hope you don’t forget me.
i’ll send you bouquets of words i never said
of texts i never sent:
yellow acacias and yellow tulips and blue forget-me-nots
(secret and hopeless and true loves);
angelica and amethyst and flowering almond
(inspiration and admiration and hope);
red columbine because you
leave me anxious, trembling;
white camellia japonica because
your loveliness
is perfected.
send me red carnations
(yes and yes and yes)
with unwritten handwritten answers
(yes and yes and yes).
flower language source: http://www.languageofflowers.com
Siendo mozo Alvargonzález,
dueño de mediana hacienda,
que en otras tierras se dice
bienestar y aquí, opulencia,
en la feria de Berlanga
prendóse de una doncella,
y la tomó por mujer
al año de conocerla.Muy ricas las bodas fueron
y quien las vio las recuerda;
sonadas las tornabodas
que hizo Alvar en su aldea;
hubo gaitas, tamboriles,
flauta, bandurria y vihuela,
fuegos a la valenciana
y danza a la aragonesa.   Feliz vivió Alvargonzález
en el amor de su tierra.
Naciéronle tres varones,
que en el campo son riqueza,
y, ya crecidos, los puso,
uno a cultivar la huerta,
otro a cuidar los merinos,
y dio el menor a la Iglesia.   Mucha sangre de Caín
tiene la gente labriega,
y en el hogar campesino
armó la envidia pelea.   Casáronse los mayores;
tuvo Alvargonzález nueras,
que le trajeron cizaña,
antes que nietos le dieran.   La codicia de los campos
ve tras la muerte la herencia;
no goza de lo que tiene
por ansia de lo que espera.   El menor, que a los latines
prefería las doncellas
hermosas y no gustaba
de vestir por la cabeza,
colgó la sotana un día
y partió a lejanas tierras.La madre lloró, y el padre
diole bendición y herencia.   Alvargonzález ya tiene
la adusta frente arrugada,
por la barba le platea
la sombra azul de la cara.   Una mañana de otoño
salió solo de su casa;
no llevaba sus lebreles,
agudos canes de caza;

  iba triste y pensativo
por la alameda dorada;
anduvo largo camino
y llegó a una fuente clara.   Echóse en la tierra; puso
sobre una piedra la manta,
y a la vera de la fuente
durmió al arrullo del agua.   Y Alvargonzález veía,
como Jacob, una escala
que iba de la tierra al cielo,
y oyó una voz que le hablaba.Mas las hadas hilanderas,
entre las vedijas blancas
y vellones de oro, han puesto
un mechón de negra lana.Tres niños están jugando
a la puerta de su casa;
entre los mayores brinca
un cuervo de negras alas.La mujer vigila, cose
y, a ratos, sonríe y canta.-Hijos, ¿qué hacéis? -les pregunta.Ellos se miran y callan.-Subid al monte, hijos míos,
y antes que la noche caiga,
con un brazado de estepas
hacedme una buena llama.   Sobre el lar de Alvargonzález
está la leña apilada;
el mayor quiere encenderla,
pero no brota la llama.-Padre, la hoguera no prende,
está la estepa mojada.   Su hermano viene a ayudarle
y arroja astillas y ramas
sobre los troncos de roble;
pero el rescoldo se apaga.Acude el menor, y enciende,
bajo la negra campana
de la cocina, una hoguera
que alumbra toda la casa.   Alvargonzález levanta
en brazos al más pequeño
y en sus rodillas lo sienta;-Tus manos hacen el fuego;
aunque el último naciste
tú eres en mi amor primero.   Los dos mayores se alejan
por los rincones del sueño.
Entre los dos fugitivos
reluce un hacha de hierro.   Sobre los campos desnudos,
la luna llena manchada
de un arrebol purpurino,
enorme globo, asomaba.Los hijos de Alvargonzález
silenciosos caminaban,
y han visto al padre dormido
junto de la fuente clara.   Tiene el padre entre las cejas
un ceño que le aborrasca
el rostro, un tachón sombrío
como la huella de un hacha.Soñando está con sus hijos,
que sus hijos lo apuñalan;
y cuando despierta mira
que es cierto lo que soñaba.   A la vera de la fuente
quedó Alvargonzález muerto.Tiene cuatro puñaladas
entre el costado y el pecho,
por donde la sangre brota,
más un hachazo en el cuello.Cuenta la hazaña del campo
el agua clara corriendo,
mientras los dos asesinos
huyen hacia los hayedos.Hasta la Laguna Negra,
bajo las fuentes del Duero,
llevan el muerto, dejando
detrás un rastro sangriento,
y en la laguna sin fondo,
que guarda bien los secretos,
con una piedra amarrada
a los pies, tumba le dieron.   Se encontró junto a la fuente
la manta de Alvargonzález,
y, camino del hayedo,
se vio un reguero de sangre.Nadie de la aldea ha osado
a la laguna acercarse,
y el sondarla inútil fuera,
que es la laguna insondable.Un buhonero, que cruzaba
aquellas tierras errante,
fue en Dauria acusado, preso
y muerto en garrote infame.   Pasados algunos meses,
la madre murió de pena.Los que muerta la encontraron
dicen que las manos yertas
sobre su rostro tenía,
oculto el rostro con ellas.   Los hijos de Alvargonzález
ya tienen majada y huerta,
campos de trigo y centeno
y prados de fina hierba;
en el olmo viejo, hendido
por el rayo, la colmena,
dos yuntas para el arado,
un mastín y mil ovejas.
    Ya están las zarzas floridas
y los ciruelos blanquean;
ya las abejas doradas
liban para sus colmenas,
y en los nidos, que coronan
las torres de las iglesias,
asoman los garabatos
ganchudos de las cigüeñas.Ya los olmos del camino
y chopos de las riberas
de los arroyos, que buscan
al padre Duero, verdean.El cielo está azul, los montes
sin nieve son de violeta.La tierra de Alvargonzález
se colmará de riqueza;
muerto está quien la ha labrado,
mas no le cubre la tierra.   La hermosa tierra de España
adusta, fina y guerrera
Castilla, de largos ríos,
tiene un puñado de sierras
entre Soria y Burgos como
reductos de fortaleza,
como yelmos crestonados,
y Urbión es una cimera.   Los hijos de Alvargonzález,
por una empinada senda,
para tomar el camino
de Salduero a Covaleda,
cabalgan en pardas mulas,
bajo el pinar de Vinuesa.Van en busca de ganado
con que volver a su aldea,
y por tierra de pinares
larga jornada comienzan.Van Duero arriba, dejando
atrás los arcos de piedra
del puente y el caserío
de la ociosa y opulenta
villa de indianos. El río
al fondo del valle, suena,
y de las cabalgaduras
los cascos baten las piedras.A la otra orilla del Duero
canta una voz lastimera:«La tierra de Alvargonzález
se colmará de riqueza,
y el que la tierra ha labrado
no duerme bajo la tierra.»   Llegados son a un paraje
en donde el pinar se espesa,
y el mayor, que abre la marcha,
su parda mula espolea,
diciendo: -Démonos prisa;
porque son más de dos leguas
de pinar y hay que apurarlas
antes que la noche venga.Dos hijos del campo, hechos
a quebradas y asperezas,
porque recuerdan un día
la tarde en el monte tiemblan.Allá en lo espeso del bosque
otra vez la copla suena:«La tierra de Alvargonzález
se colmará de riqueza,
y el que la tierra ha labrado
no duerme bajo la tierra».   Desde Salduero el camino
va al hilo de la ribera;
a ambas márgenes del río
el pinar crece y se eleva,
y las rocas se aborrascan,
al par que el valle se estrecha.Los fuertes pinos del bosque
con sus copas gigantescas
y sus desnudas raíces
amarradas a las piedras;
los de troncos plateados
cuyas frondas azulean,
pinos jóvenes; los viejos,
cubiertos de blanca lepra,
musgos y líquenes canos
que el grueso tronco rodean,
colman el valle y se pierden
rebasando ambas laderasJuan, el mayor, dice: -Hermano,
si Blas Antonio apacienta
cerca de Urbión su vacada,
largo camino nos queda.-Cuando hacia Urbión alarguemos
se puede acortar de vuelta,
tomando por el atajo,
hacia la Laguna Negra
y bajando por el puerto
de Santa Inés a Vinuesa.-Mala tierra y peor camino.
Te juro que no quisiera
verlos otra vez. Cerremos
los tratos en Covaleda;
hagamos noche y, al alba,
volvámonos a la aldea
por este valle, que, a veces,
quien piensa atajar rodea.Cerca del río cabalgan
los hermanos, y contemplan
cómo el bosque centenario,
al par que avanzan, aumenta,
y la roqueda del monte
el horizonte les cierra.El agua, que va saltando,
parece que canta o cuenta:«La tierra de Alvargonzález
se colmará de riqueza,
y el que la tierra ha labrado
no duerme bajo la tierra».
    Aunque la codicia tiene
redil que encierre la oveja,
trojes que guarden el trigo,
bolsas para la moneda,
y garras, no tiene manos
que sepan labrar la tierra.Así, a un año de abundancia
siguió un año de pobreza.   En los sembrados crecieron
las amapolas sangrientas;
pudrió el tizón las espigas
de trigales y de avenas;
hielos tardíos mataron
en flor la fruta en la huerta,
y una mala hechicería
hizo enfermar las ovejas.A los dos Alvargonzález
maldijo Dios en sus tierras,
y al año pobre siguieron
largos años de miseria.   Es una noche de invierno.
Cae la nieve en remolinos.
Los Alvargonzález velan
un fuego casi extinguido.El pensamiento amarrado
tienen a un recuerdo mismo,
y en las ascuas mortecinas
del hogar los ojos fijos.No tienen leña ni sueño.Larga es la noche y el frío
arrecia. Un candil humea
en el muro ennegrecido.El aire agita la llama,
que pone un  fulgor rojizo
sobre las dos pensativas 
testas de los asesinos.El mayor de Alvargonzález,
lanzando un ronco suspiro,
rompe el silencio, exclamando:-Hermano, ¡qué mal hicimos!El viento la puerta bate
hace temblar el postigo,
y suena en la chimenea
con hueco y largo bramido.Después, el silencio vuelve,
y a intervalos el pabilo
del candil chisporrotea
en el aire aterecido.El segundo dijo: -Hermano,
¡demos lo viejo al olvido!

  Es una noche de invierno.
Azota el viento las ramas
de los álamos. La nieve
ha puesto la tierra blanca.Bajo la nevada, un hombre
por el camino cabalga;
va cubierto hasta los ojos,
embozado en negra capa.Entrado en la aldea, busca
de Alvargonzález la casa,
y ante su puerta llegado,
sin echar pie a tierra, llama.   Los dos hermanos oyeron
una aldabada a la puerta,
y de una cabalgadura
los cascos sobre las piedras.Ambos los ojos alzaron
llenos de espanto y sorpresa.-¿Quién es?  Responda -gritaron.-Miguel -respondieron fuera.Era la voz del viajero
que partió a lejanas tierras.   Abierto el portón, entróse
a caballo el caballero
y echó pie a tierra. Venía
todo de nieve cubierto.En brazos de sus hermanos
lloró algún rato en silencio.Después dio el caballo al uno,
al otro, capa y sombrero,
y en la estancia campesina
buscó el arrimo del fuego.   El menor de los hermanos,
que niño y aventurero
fue más allá de los mares
y hoy torna indiano opulento,
vestía con ***** traje
de peludo terciopelo,
ajustado a la cintura
por ancho cinto de cuero.Gruesa cadena formaba
un bucle de oro en su pecho.Era un hombre alto y robusto,
con ojos grandes y negros
llenos de melancolía;
la tez de color moreno,
y sobre la frente comba
enmarañados cabellos;
el hijo que saca porte
señor de padre labriego,
a quien fortuna le debe
amor, poder y dinero.
De los tres Alvargonzález
era Miguel el más bello;
porque al mayor afeaba
el muy poblado entrecejo
bajo la frente mezquina,
y al segundo, los inquietos
ojos que mirar no saben
de frente, torvos y fieros.   Los tres hermanos contemplan
el triste hogar en silencio;
y con la noche cerrada
arrecia el frío y el viento.-Hermanos, ¿no tenéis leña?-dice Miguel.             -No tenemos
-responde el mayor.               Un hombre,
milagrosamente, ha abierto
la gruesa puerta cerrada
con doble barra de hierro.

El hombre que ha entrado tiene
el rostro del padre muerto.Un halo de luz dorada
orla sus blancos cabellos.
Lleva un haz de leña al hombro
y empuña un hacha de hierro.   De aquellos campos malditos,
Miguel a sus dos hermanos
compró una parte, que mucho
caudal de América trajo,
y aun en tierra mala, el oro
luce mejor que enterrado,
y más en mano de pobres
que oculto en orza de barro.   Diose a trabajar la tierra
con fe y tesón el indiano,
y a laborar los mayores
sus pegujales tornaron.   Ya con macizas espigas,
preñadas de rubios granos,
a los campos de Miguel
tornó el fecundo verano;
y ya de aldea en aldea
se cuenta como un milagro,
que los asesinos tienen
la maldición en sus campos.   Ya el pueblo canta una copla
que narra el crimen pasado:«A la orilla de la fuente
lo asesinaron.¡qué mala muerte le dieron
los hijos malos!En la laguna sin fondo
al padre muerto arrojaron.No duerme bajo la tierra
el que la tierra ha labrado».   Miguel, con sus dos lebreles
y armado de su escopeta,
hacia el azul de los montes,
en una tarde serena,
caminaba entre los verdes
chopos de la carretera,
y oyó una voz que cantaba:«No tiene tumba en la tierra.
Entre los pinos del valle
del Revinuesa,
al padre muerto llevaron
hasta la Laguna Negra».
    La casa de Alvargonzález
era una casona vieja,
con cuatro estrechas ventanas,
separada de la aldea
cien pasos y entre dos olmos
que, gigantes centinelas,
sombra le dan en verano,
y en el otoño hojas secas.   Es casa de labradores,
gente aunque rica plebeya,
donde el hogar humeante
con sus escaños de piedra
se ve sin entrar, si tiene
abierta al campo la puerta.   Al arrimo del rescoldo
del hogar borbollonean
dos pucherillos de barro,
que a dos familias sustentan.   A diestra mano, la cuadra
y el corral; a la siniestra,
huerto y abejar, y, al fondo,
una gastada escalera,
que va a las habitaciones
partidas en dos viviendas.   Los Alvargonzález moran
con sus mujeres en ellas.
A ambas parejas que hubieron,
sin que lograrse pudieran,
dos hijos, sobrado espacio
les da la casa paterna.   En una estancia que tiene
luz al huerto, hay una mesa
con gruesa tabla de roble,
dos sillones de vaqueta,
colgado en el muro, un *****
ábaco de enormes cuentas,
y unas espuelas mohosas
sobre un arcón de madera.   Era una estancia olvidada
donde hoy Miguel se aposenta.
Y era allí donde los padres
veían en primavera
el huerto en flor, y en el cielo
de mayo, azul, la cigüeña
-cuando las rosas se abren
y los zarzales blanquean-
que enseñaba a sus hijuelos
a usar de las alas lentas.   Y en las noches del verano,
cuando la calor desvela,
desde la ventana al dulce
ruiseñor cantar oyeran.   Fue allí donde Alvargonzález,
del orgullo de su huerta
y del amor a los suyos,
sacó sueños de grandeza.   Cuando en brazos de la madre
vio la figura risueña
del primer hijo, bruñida
de rubio sol la cabeza,
del niño que levantaba
las codiciosas, pequeñas
manos a las rojas guindas
y a las moradas ciruelas,
o aquella tarde de otoño,
dorada, plácida y buena,
él pensó que ser podría
feliz el hombre en la tierra.   Hoy canta el pueblo una copla
que va de aldea en aldea:«¡Oh casa de Alvargonzález,
qué malos días te esperan;
casa de los asesinos,
que nadie llame a tu puerta!»   Es una tarde de otoño.
En la alameda dorada
no quedan ya ruiseñores;
enmudeció la cigarra.   Las últimas golondrinas,
que no emprendieron la marcha,
morirán, y las cigüeñas
de sus nidos de retamas,
en torres y campanarios,
huyeron.           Sobre la casa
de Alvargonzález, los olmos
sus hojas que el viento arranca
van dejando. Todavía
las tres redondas acacias,
en el atrio de la iglesia,
conservan verdes sus ramas,
y las castañas de Indias
a intervalos se desgajan
cubiertas de sus erizos;
tiene el rosal rosas grana
otra vez, y en las praderas
brilla la alegre otoñada.   En laderas y en alcores,
en ribazos y en cañadas,
el verde nuevo y la hierba,
aún del estío quemada,
alternan; los serrijones
pelados, las lomas calvas,
se coronan de plomizas
nubes apelotonadas;
y bajo el pinar gigante,
entre las marchitas zarzas
y amarillentos helechos,
corren las crecidas aguas
a engrosar el padre río
por canchales y barrancas.   Abunda en la tierra un gris
de plomo y azul de plata,
con manchas de roja herrumbre,
todo envuelto en luz violada.   ¡Oh tierras de Alvargonzález,
en el corazón de España,
tierras pobres, tierras tristes,
tan tristes que tienen alma!   Páramo que cruza el lobo
aullando a la luna clara
de bosque a bosque, baldíos
llenos de peñas rodadas,
donde roída de buitres
brilla una osamenta blanca;
pobres campos solitarios
sin caminos ni posadas,¡oh pobres campos malditos,
pobres campos de mi patria!
    Una mañana de otoño,
cuando la tierra se labra,
Juan y el indiano aparejan
las dos yuntas de la casa.
Martín se quedó en el huerto
arrancando hierbas malas.   Una mañana de otoño,
cuando los campos se aran,
sobre un otero, que tiene
el cielo de la mañana
por fondo, la parda yunta
de Juan lentamente avanza.   Cardos, lampazos y abrojos,
avena loca y cizaña,
llenan la tierra maldita,
tenaz a pico y a escarda.   Del corvo arado de roble
la hundida reja trabaja
con vano esfuerzo; parece,
que al par que hiende la entraña
del campo y hace camino
se cierra otra vez la zanja.   «Cuando el asesino labre
será su labor pesada;
antes que un surco en la tierra,
tendrá una arruga en su cara».   Martín, que estaba en la huerta
cavando, sobre su azada
quedó apoyado un momento;
frío sudor le bañaba
el rostro.           Por el Oriente,
la luna llena, manchada
de un arrebol purpurino,
lucía tras de la tapia
del huerto.           Martín tenía
la sangre de horror helada.
La azada que hundió en la tierra
teñida de sangre estaba.   En la tierra en que ha nacido
supo afincar el indiano;
por mujer a una doncella
rica y hermosa ha tomado.   La hacienda de Alvargonzález
ya es suya, que sus hermanos
todo le vendieron: casa,
huerto, colmenar y campo.   Juan y Martín, los mayores
de Alvargonzález, un
every life is unique and connected


no one understands
all or even
most of
human existence

sometimes you need
encouragement

sometimes god really
does cut you
a break

sometimes idols crack
asking whom do i serve
when i try to create
a little celebrity
out of a soul which is
too precious
to be reduced to numbers
what is a world
whose creatures
hide inside machines
fear of humans
is enough of
a prison
fear of thoughts
they probably aren't even thinking

but who knows
in this world
at least the brothers tell the truth

whom shall i fear and what

control is an illusion
when the tsunami
almost comes
i see we all
must go to
the calling
only

like you taught me
if you're going to believe something
believe it

everyone has to come out
about something, i had
to come out about cannabis

it's true there's two sides to everything
if i judge you
i condemn myself

i don't know
where those tears
have been

rhino pi and i by the fireplace tonight
rhino gives me his soft stripe sweatshirt
purple black white red i say i'll wear it
and think of you all over the world
and bring it back full of
stories and
mice and
fire

i was writing into the abyss
when i was in the abyss,
when the abyss
was me,
no longer

who jesus bless no man curse

born again
into a rhythm of
waves and reggae

hey hey hey
it's you
i've been waiting for

no one remembers the reunions
of those who came before,
what they did or them at all

except the Creator

who transcends lies and clocks
who creates in wisdom acacias and watermelons and whales
who keeps our tears in his bottles

i bow my head at the door of his hut
i stand by the light of his fire
my bread i accept from his hand
Brandon Mar 2012
I can feel you far from here
Blowing smoke from the ice in your lungs
Catching rays of summer sun with the palms of your hands
Opened, stretching outwards towards the touch of oblivion
The flickering of your eyelids to some bashful beat of beauty
Serene whispers of music only you and I can hear
Your lips caressing the air with a mix of sweet sultry words and ocean salt
The tenderness of acacias with the touch of thorns persisting perseverance

I can feel you far from here
Laughing at the conversation between ocean and seashells
Laughing your silver laugh thru pearl white teeth
Clenching nervously on your lower lip
And tugging at strands of auburn hair
Rolling your Mediterranean eyes
As your lungs fill with the slithering wisps of beach bonfire smoke
The blossoming of stars and the blooming of the misunderstood lotus
Cuando me confiscaron la palabra
y me quitaron hasta el horizonte
cuando salí silvando despacito
y hasta hice bromas con el funcionario
de emigración o desintegración
y hubo el adiós de siempre con la mano
a la familia firme en la baranda
a los amigos que sobrevivían
y un motor el derecho tosió fuerte
y movió la azafata sus pestañas
como diciendo a vos yo te conozco
yo tenía estudiada una teoría
del exilio mis pozos del exilio
pero el cursillo no sirvió de nada

cómo saber que las ciudades reservaban
una cuota de su amor más austero
para los que llegábamos
con el odio pisándonos la huella
cómo saber que nos harían sitio
entre sus escaseces más henchidas
y sin averiguarnos los fervores
ni mucho menos el grupo sanguíneo
abrirían de par en par sus gozos
y también sus catástrofes
para que nos sintiéramos
igualito que en casa

cómo saber que yo mismo iba a hallar
sábanas limpias desayunos abrazos
en pueyrredón y french
en canning y las heras
y en lince
y en barranco
y en arequipa al tres mil seiscientos
y en el vedado
y dondequiera

siempre hay calles que olvidan sus balazos
sus silencios de pizarra lunar
y eligen festejarnos recibirnos llorarnos
con sus tiernas ventanas que lo comprenden todo
e inesperados pájaros entre flores y hollines
también plazas con pinos discretísimos
que preguntan señor cómo quedaron
sus acacias sus álamos
y los ojos se nos llenan de láminas
en rigor nuestros árboles están sufriendo como
por otra parte sufren los caballos la gente
los gorriones los paraguas las nubes
en un país que ya no tiene simulacros

es increíble pero no estoy solo
a menudo me trenzo con manos o con voces
o encuentro una muchacha para ir lluvia adentro
y alfabetizarme en su áspera hermosura
quién no sabe a esta altura que el dolor
es también un ilustre apellido

con éste o con aquélla nos miramos de lejos
y nos reconocemos por el rictus paterno
o la herida materna en el espejo
el llanto o la risa como nombres de guerra
ya que el llanto o la risa legales y cabales
son apenas blasones coberturas

estamos desarmados como sueño en andrajos
pero los anfitriones nos rearman de apuro
nos quieren como aliados y no como reliquias
aunque a veces nos pidan la derrota en hilachas
para no repetirla

inermes como sueños así vamos
pero los anfitriones nos formulan preguntas
que incluyen su semilla de respuesta
y ponen sus palomas mensajeras y lemas
a nuestra tímida disposición
y claro sudamos los mismos pánicos
temblamos las mismas preocupaciones

a medida que entramos en el miedo
vamos perdiendo nuestra extranjería
ei enemigo es una niebla espesa
es el común denominador o
denominador plenipotenciario

es bueno reanudar el enemigo
de lo contrario puede acontecer
que uno se ablande al verlo tan odioso
el enemigo es siempre el mismo cráte
todavía no hay volcanes apagados

cuando nos escondemos a regar
la maceta con tréboles venéreos
aceitamos bisagras filosóficas
le ponemos candado a los ex domicilios
y juntamos las viudas militancias
y desobedecemos a los meteorólogos
soñamos con axilas y grupas y caricias
despertamos oliendo a naftalina
todos los campanarios nos conmueven
aunque tan solo duren en la tarde plomiza
y estemos abollados de trabajo

el recuerdo del mar cuando no hay mar
nos desventura la insolencia y la sangre
y cuando hay mar de un verde despiadado
la ola rompe en múltiples agüeros

uno de los problemas de esta vida accesoria
es que en cada noticia emigramos
siempre los pies alados livianísirnos
del que espera la señal de largada
y claro a medida que la señal no llega
nos aplacamos y nos convertimos
en herines apiñados y reumáticos

y bien esa maciza ingravidez
alza sus espirales de huelo en el lenguaje
hablamos ele botijas o gurises
y nos traducen pibe riñe guagua
suena ta o taluego
y es como si cantáramos desvergonzadamente
do jamás se pone el sol se pone el sol

y nos aceptan siempre
nos inventan a veces
nos lustran la morriña majadera
con la nostalgia que hubieran tenido
o que tuvieron o que van a tener
pero además nos muestran ayeres y anteayeres
la película entera a fin de que aprendamos
que la tragedia es ave migratoria
que los pueblos irán a contramuerte
y el destino se labra con las uñas

habrá que agradecerlo de por vida
acaso más que el pan y la cama y el techo
y los poros alertas del amo
r habrá que recordar con un exvoto
esa pedagogía solidaria y tangible

por lo pronto se sienten orgullosos
de entender que no vamos a quedarnos
porque claro hay un cielo
que nos gusta tener sobre la crisma
así uno va fundando las patrias interinas
segundas patrias siempre fueron buenas
cuando no nos padecen y no nos compadecen
simplemente nos hacen un lugar junto al fuego
y nos ayudan a mirar las llamas
porque saben que en ellas vemos nombres y bocas

es dulce y prodigiosa esta patria interina
con manos tibias que reciben dando
se aprende todo menos las ausencias
hay certidumbres y caminos rotos
besos rendidos y provisionales
brumas con barcos que parecen barcos
y lunas que reciben nuestra noche
con tangos marineras sones rumbas
y lo importante es que nos acompañan
con su futuro a cuestas y sus huesos

esta patria interina es dulce y honda
tiene la gracia de rememorarnos
de alcanzarnos noticias y dolores
como si recogiera cachorros de añoranza
y los diera a la suerte de los niños

de a poco percibimos los signos del paisaje
y nos vamos midiendo primero con sus nubes
y luego con sus rabias y sus glorias
primero con sus nubes
que unas veces son fibras filamentos
y otras veces tan redondas y plenas
como tetas de madre treinteañera
y luego con sus rabias y sus glorias
que nunca son ambiguas

acostumbrándonos a sus costumbres
llegamos a sentir sus ráfagas de historia
y aunque siempre habrá un nudo inaccesible
un útero de glorias que es propiedad privada
igual nuestra confianza izará sus pendones
y creeremos que un día que también que ojalá

aquí no me segrego
tampoco me segregan
hago de centinela de sus sueños
podemos ir a escote en el error
o nutrirnos de otras melancolías

algunos provenimos del durazno y la uva
otros vienen del mango y el mamey
y sin embargo vamos a encontrarnos
en la indócil naranja universal

el enemigo nos vigila acérrimo
él y sus corruptólogos husmean
nos aprenden milímetro a milímetro
estudian las estelas que deja el corazón
pero no pueden descifrar el rumbo
se les ve la soberbia desde lejos
sus llamas vuelven a lamer el cielo
chamuscando los talones de dios

su averno monopólico ha acabado
con el infierno artesanal de leviatán

es fuerte el enemigo y sin embargo
mientras la bomba eleva sus hipótesis
y todo se asimila al holocausto
una chiva tranquila una chiva de veras
prosigue masticando en el islote

ella solita derrotó al imperio
todos tendríamos que haber volado
a abrazar a esa hermana
ella sí demostró lo indemostrable
y fue excepción y regla todo junto
y gracias a esa chiva de los pueblos
ay nos quedamos sin apocalipsis

cuando sentimos el escalofrío
y los malos olores de la ruina
siempre es bueno saber que en algún meridiano
hay una chiva a lo mejor un puma
un ñandú una jutía una lombriz
un espermatozoide un feto una criatura
un hombre o dos un pueblo
una isla un archipiélago
un continente un mundo
tan firmes y tan dignos de seguir masticando
y destruir al destructor y acaso
desapocalipsarnos para siempre

es germinal y aguda esta patria interina
y nuestro desconsuelo integra su paisaje
pero también lo integra nuestro bálsamo

por supuesto sabemos desenrollar la risa
y madrugar y andar descalzos por la arena
narrar blancos prodigios a los niños
inventar minuciosos borradores de amor
y pasarlos en limpio en la alta noche
juntar pedazos de canciones viejas
decir cuentos de loros y gallegos
y de alemanes y de cocodrilos
y jugar al pingpong y a los actores
bailar el pericón y la milonga
traducir un bolero al alemán
y dos tangos a un vesre casi quechua
claro no somos una pompa fúnebre
usamos el derecho a la alegría

pero cómo ocultarnos los derrumbes
el canto se nos queda en estupor
hasta el amor es de pronto una culpa
nadie se ríe de los basiliscos
he visto a mis hermanos en mis patrias suplentes
postergar su alegría cuando muere la nuestra
y ese sí es un tributo inolvidable

por eso cuando vuelva
                                      y algún día será
a mis tierras mis gentes y mi cielo
ojaló que el ladrillo que a puro riesgo traje
para mostrar al mundo cómo era mi casa
dure como mis duras devociones
a mis patrias suplentes compañeras
viva como un pedazo de mi vida
quede como un ladrillo en otra casa.
Tawanda Mulalu Apr 2015
.

  I.

When the poet first met her, again,
Cupid tried to strike him with an arrow.
It missed because the poet stared
through her. Not at her.

Yesterday it was,
'Get online loser.'
Tonight she says: quick
give me a description of Paris.

She always says such things.

He says: cold
like the pin-*****
of morning after-skin. Warm
like the shiver of a hand
held soft; of lips kissed.

He always says such things.

He even calls her Honeybear,
Cupid be ******.


  II.

He liked her because she read more books than him.

Her voice always made the sound of a page turned:
Crisp, clear, passionate;
revelling in the present,
but always waiting for the next sentence.

As if a book could actually speak
like a person.

As if the hours
she spent reading alone were not
just conversations with herself.

As if every syllable
was a night-whisper with
the great American dead.

The poet doubted if she ever
truly talked to Fitzgerald because
he was a drunk too obsessed
with one spirit. She'd get annoyed.

But then again, her drink of choice
is also an ungraspable green light.

Paris.


  III.

When she put on her spectacles,
the world became less clearer:
she could only see how far away she was
from where she was supposed to be.
The sharper life's images were,
the surer she became of this.

She had her substitutes for foreign oxygen:
novels, movies, songs, poems;
but they never quite breathed the same.
He tried to force the glasses off her.
Maybe then she could more barely
make out the thorny edges of sun-dried Acacias,
and more fuzzily the general sun-warmth
that he thought was the Kgalagadi soul.

She refused, but when she didn't,
she wore contact lenses. Real,
or imagined, the thin sheet of
dream glass pressed against her eyes
could never disappear. Her soul
was where it was: where it wasn't.
So still all she could see,
even when he smiled vivid,
was a place that wasn't Paris.


  IV.

Somewhere.

That is where she thought she was.
Here, an indescribable place.
Indescribable because she saw it grey. He
instead saw dappled speckles,
and rainbows flickering across every corner.
But he was of here and here alone, he felt
the landscape's beauty in his bones. She
wondered why she should look at
sandy semi-desert instead of gravelled
culture. She wanted pathway upon pathways of
old Europe, lingering in modern cafés and bistros
like an affectionate aftertaste. He
was happy with spoonfuls of instant coffee with
translated copies of a country he would never see.
To him, a French poet in English
was just about the same as a
French poet in French.
He knew that wasn't true, of course.

But the point was to get across the idea of
a Little Paris in his Somewhere. Just as he had an
idea of her in the movies she shared; where
she would awkwardly appear as bits and pieces
of dialogue, sceneries, soundtracks and end-credits
injected into his laptop weekends atop his bed.
He knew her as old romance films on USBs.
It wasn't quite her, but he still liked the idea of it.

He liked ideas, and ideas alone
were more than enough for him.

To her, ideas were restless things
to be beaten into submission.

And so she endlessly beat life's piñata
with a stick of dream,
and hoped to find a plane ticket
amongst the false candies.

She's still swinging.


  V.

He couldn't stop her and he didn't try.
At the very least, he admired her charm;
the zest and gusto of her swing.

But she tired easily. And he didn't want
her to be tired.

Sometimes her laughter would burst into her
and she'd forget about ambition, forget about success.
Sometimes she would just bite into her own sweetness
like if a rose could smell itself. She loved her red,  
and was more intimate with her petals than her pulse.
Just as how she knew Paris better
than this Somewhere.

He thought she was crazy.
But so did she.
And they argued about this because
She thought he was crazy.
But so did he.

And so,
they disagreed about agreement
every day.

On a good day she would present a vicious smile,
the next paragraph in her never-ending thesis
that he doesn't intend to stop reading,
but somehow hasn't even started.
He never will.

On a bad day... well, a bad day
would lead to the end of a verse.


  VI.

They would always eventually get over a bad day.

Coldness takes effort; warmth does not.
The knew this, but warmth often became
an uncomfortable singeing of their safety.
They ran at the thought
of such possibilities like tiny girls
from tiny spiders. Neither wanted to put
that eight-legged flame into a jar, but
somehow they both expected butterflies.

The ecosystem is such for good reason,
and that reason is balance.
Spiders and butterflies both constitute
that effortless, life-affirming warmth.

They dance around that truth as it is a bonfire.
Sometimes they even look bright at it. But never,
never do they touch that little Paris, that little flame;
their little flame, their little Paris.
Because that love is meaningless meaning,
and neither of them wants to be, or feel, wrong.
Even if they'd be wrong together.

Their hands never meet in that fire.
Their souls never burn in night's ecstasy.
And they are almost never born,
until tomorrow, when they smile once again,
and dance.


Come online loser.
It's another birthday poem for a friend.
Tómame de la mano. Vámonos a la lluvia
descalzos y ligeros de ropa, sin paraguas,
con el cabello al viento y el cuerpo a la caricia
oblicua, refrescante y menuda, del agua.

¡Que rían los vecinos! Puesto que somos jóvenes
y los dos nos amamos y nos gusta la lluvia,
vamos a ser felices con el gozo sencillo
de un casal de gorriones que en la vía se arrulla.

Más allá están los campos y el camino de acacias
y la quinta suntuosa de aquel pobre señor
millonario y obeso, que con todos sus oros,

no podría comprarnos ni un gramo del tesoro
inefable y supremo que nos ha dado Dios:
ser flexibles, ser jóvenes, estar llenos de amor.
I’m sitting above some soil,
Is this my backyard?
No, my neighborhood is
Many miles from here.
Scores of sounds
Jump down
At different decibels
To my excited ears.
A Mexican Sun bronzes arms,
And the sky continues to stay clear.

Am I grateful for the sky?
I am grateful for the sky.

Trees plus breeze
Equals a faint whisper
Amid muggy heat.
I wish I could translate each leaf,
For the forest keeps
A language of her own.

I would like to leave my mark on this earth -
More lastingly than the Red River Maple tree,
Who leaves only a passing shadow on the ground.
And as some twisted Acacias talk about how
Long they’ve been around, I’m not so naïve,
So their noise dies down.

Just long enough
To hear my thoughts
Echo, and echo,
And stop somewhere.

Sweat beads drip down
Onto a parched porch.
Soon, the moisture is gone,
And a taciturn timber terrace
Smiles as if to say;
“I am the Sahara. I am dry.”

Shifting my gaze
Back to nature,
I center my senses,
On these different woods,
Which breathe without fences.
A gray catbird picks away at the ground,
Searching for some nourishment.

An Inca Dove ***** by noisily,
For stealth has never been his game.
A cardinal flits across the landscape,
Not staying long enough for me
To fully appreciate his crimson splendor.

A motor car rumbles by,
But soon the forest’s natural
Symphony drowns that sound.
A strand of a spider’s web
Drifts by, stealing my eyes,
For moments.

Signs of spring, of summer, of September,
Live in this place. I wonder if
My yard is blooming, too.
nie Jan 2016
little finches in your head. and they pinch, pinch, pinch
but what is left to wake up.

awakened: rising shadows, rigid hands.
bandage tightly – does it remind you of the rings you used to wear? where you belonged. you used to be
a lady of many rings, more bird than nest. (the harpies scream)

(harpies sing of truth and times that are, gloating. we are so little. the present falls on us
and we are so much less.)


you need to send apologies to the finches. you plant acacias. you call your ears
traitors
and then there are dreams that leave you with a silent glow. the shadow forgotten, the past
engaged in ballroom dances, vivid. you recall vividly. there are rings on your hands
and you know all things in dreams
and you have birds in your head because there is more to find than in the sun.
the harpies scream.
(you do not. you are silence, glowing.)
I hate the dark cedar behind the feral wood;
They are too wild for me, and bitter as injustice.
My Nikolaas is perhaps lost behind them;
He was stranded when he played with madness.

My Nikolaas was heavily tossed aside,
And his feelings for me were maliciously murdered.
But my dreams of him remain infantile and sophisticated;
I dream of him too much and in a servile way.

I am toxicated by this love and peril;
I have been shot and shall tremble at my own feet;
I have been seeing these dreams, by my own will;
I have been treating them with sober grins and wit.

Where is but my prince, my dazzling, moronic prince;
Who lived and laughed at me on that very day,
When clouds were storms in a magnified piece;
When moons were stars who fought for their own sunlight.

Where is but my love, my dark darling, my cold devil;
Whose jokes are better than satire;
Whose breath is tainted with my young love;
Whose love echoes so sweetly in my ears.

I remember Nikolaas but five years back;
He was a naive gloss behind my working back,
Whom I fell in love with as a distant college girl,
I was enveloped by the sunny roads of Jakarta.

I remember him as the regal prince,
Who liked to sing and laugh and sing again,
Until the night cast its fair but essential spells,
And the heavenly noon turned as dark as hell.

Nikolaas, our benign and heart-shaped darling,
Whom the demons loved to ask to sing,
Who unstintingly captured my heart,
And almost married it in a heat of delight.

Nikolaas, whom to my heart is but superabundant,
The glorious witch I fell in love with,
When I was but young and rough and discourteous,
But still magnificent to me--with his naughty and obsessive colours.

Come into the garden, my love,
For the black bat, Winter, has flown;
Come into the garden, now,
Because those infuriated shapes
Have left me alone.

Come into the garden, Nikolaas;
Because I am here at the gate alone;
Come into the garden, now;
For the breeze is high, and so is my planet of love.

And that wind of our morning moves
Is now beginning to turn into a bed of daffodils
Which shall blow away with its tender green leaf;
Once the earth is angry with its deaf clouds.

And for thee, this winter is fainting and being scared away
And I want to faint in thy sumptuous light
Because I want to die in a dream that you love;
To faint in the round light you love, and die.

While the sky is too rich and too opulent;
But I cannot find a heart as focal as thine;
Too risky and untidy and might yet be gone;
Too cherished and haughty every single day, unlike mine.

I said to the lily, "There might be one
With whom he has heart to be gay.
When will the dancers leave her alone?
He is weary of masked dance and play."

The lily told me but never to worry;
For my Nikolaas does not have but his own story;
His story is untold and it is with me;
I am the one who knows all his poetry.

But the brief night is always with wine;
And cigars and sins that come with it;
I hate the wonders and scent of plain vinegar;
I feel unfair when my Nikolaas touches it.

And the soul of the rose went into my blood;
As the music wore off in the hall;
It was the end of my merry villonaude;
The one I had prepared for this lonesome yule.

And the boughs of roses I had firmly kept;
Were now no longer scented with his sweat;
He was no more of the awesome lad;
He was not real this time, like ever before.

And long by the painted garden I stood,
For I heard his rivulets fall
And his fantastic voice and manly music
That are but too dearer than all.

But the garden is perhaps no more;
Soaked into the screaming of his nymphet blood;
Scraped by his failed roses and charisma;
That which were calm no more, nor dramatic any more.

But in those green lands his walks have left so sweet
That whenever the sombre wind sighs
It shall but be swept away by his own wings,
And die a languorous death, in a funny cause.

And in the meadow, Nikolaas is the sweetest
That none can guard nor tear
The fine prints of his blue eyes,
For he is not all else's but mine,
The one I long to feel
Between my loving heart and mind.

And I shall print thy name in the acacias of summers,
They will lead my love to thine,
And to the wooden hollows in which we met
And into the unopened valleys of Paradise.

Come hither, Nikolaas, for the dances are done;
And so these longings shall wither away;
I would like to tether thee to my sky once more;
And replace thy broken violin with the sun.

And I shall sit in the throne with thee;
In gloss of satin and clear glimmer of pearls;
By boughs of violets and undying peaches;
By the sea of those little heads that bow.

I shall be thy flower and thy sun,
And wed myself to thee in yon ****** bed;
My heart will wait for thee and write,
The best hymn and lyrics for our sweetest night.

He is coming, my own, my sweet;
With his own proud air and lavish tread;
My heart will but hear him and beat;
And blossom widely in purple and red.
Our love isn’t at ease,
just like the wind in white acacias
and like a bead on child’s hand,
it’s not at ease.
In it they miss – wonderlands,
delights, flame and solace.
And none of us will call it my own
before it passes us on slightly.
And it will stay somewhere – far away,
unapproachable, uneasy.
And yellow leaves will whisper in snows.

Our love isn’t at ease.
It isn’t at ease.

The original:

*
Не е спокойна нашата любов,
тъй както вятър в белите акации
и като мънисто на ръката на дете,
не е спокойна.
Във нея няма чудни светове,
възторзи, пламък и утеха.
И никой своя няма да я назове
преди да ни отмине леко.
И ще остане някъде – далечна,
непостижима, неудобна.
И жълтите листа ще шепнат в снегове.

Не е спокойна нашата любов.
Не е спокойна.


*Translator Bulgarian-English: Vessislava Savova
rarebird
© bogpan - all rights reserved.
Palacio, buen amigo,
¿está la primavera
vistiendo ya las ramas de los chopos
del río y los caminos? En la estepa
del alto Duero, Primavera tarda,
¡pero es tan bella y dulce cuando llega!...¿Tienen los viejos olmos
algunas hojas nuevas?Aún las acacias estarán desnudas
y nevados los montes de las sierras.¡Oh mole del Moncayo blanca y rosa,
allá, en el cielo de Aragón, tan bella!¿Hay zarzas florecidas
entré las grises peñas,
y blancas margaritas
entre la fina hierba?Por esos campanarios
ya habrán ido llegando las cigüeñas.Habrá trigales verdes,
y mulas pardas en las sementeras,
y labriegos que siembran los tardíos
con las lluvias de abril. Ya las abejas
libarán del tomillo y el romero.¿Hay ciruelos en flor? ¿Quedan violetas?Furtivos cazadores, los reclamos
de la perdiz bajo las capas luengas,
no faltarán. Palacio, buen amigo,¿tienen ya ruiseñores las riberas?Con los primeros lirios
y las primeras rosas de las huertas,
en una tarde azul, sube al Espino,
al alto Espino donde está su tierra...
Layne Joy Apr 2019
is celebrated with a call through tin can phones
connected by yarn-                           to us. He sends warm wishes and warnings, slurred together as                spirits replace blood. Our kiss was nine rings around the tin can ago,      under a streetlamp where you've unveiled a pool of               Acacias and shamrocks.

We are crafted of cement chips from the streets we once sauntered.
We grasp for one another's hands on playground equipment,
stomachs full of one-dollar cinnamon rolls from Jewel-Osco,
cowering from the sun like children in a blanket fort.

we are safe                 when we are together              we are invincible

There will always be splinters of us. My name
is spelled out where the light meets the street  –
a balmy, January sunset           birthing,
                                                                ­      crawling to a dry.
Por la sierra blanca...
La nieve menuda
y el viento de cara.
  Por entre los pinos...
con la blanca nieve
se borra el camino.
  Recio viento sopla
de Urbión a Moncayo.
¡Páramos de Soria!Ya habrá cigüeñas al sol,
mirando la tarde roja,
entre Moncayo y Urbión.   Se abrió la puerta que tiene
gonces en mi corazón.
y otra vez la galería
de mi historia apareció.
  Otra vez la plazoleta
de las acacias en flor,
y otra vez la fuente clara
cuenta un romance de amor.   Es la parda encina
y el yermo de piedra.
Cuando el sol tramonta,
el río despierta.
  ¡Oh montes lejanos
de malva y violeta!
En el aire en sombra
sólo el río suena.
  ¡Luna amoratada
de una tarde vieja,
en un campo frío,
más luna que tierra!.   Soria de montes azules
y de yermos de violeta,
¡cuántas veces te he soñado
en esta florida vega
por donde se va,
entre naranjos de oro,
Guadalquivir a la mar!   ¡Cuántas veces me borraste,
tierra de ceniza,
estos limonares verdes
con sombras de tus encinas!
  ¡Oh campos de Dios,
entre Urbión el de Castilla
y Moncayo el de Aragón!   En Córdoba, la serrana,
en Sevilla, marinera
y labradora, que tiene
hinchada, hacia el mar, la vela;
y en el ancho llano
por donde la arena sorbe
la baba del mar amargo,
hacia la fuente del Duero
mi corazón -¡Soria pura!-
se tornaba... ¡Oh, fronteriza
entre la tierra y la luna!
  ¡Alta paramera
donde corre el Duero niño
tierra donde está su tierra!El río despierta.
En el aire obscuro,
sólo el río suena.
  ¡Oh canción amarga
del agua en la piedra!
...Hacia el alto Espino
bajo las estrellas.
  Sólo suena el río
al fondo del valle,
bajo el alto Espino.   En medio del campo,
tiene la ventana abierta
la ermita sin ermitaño.
Un tejadillo verdoso.
Cuatro muros blancos.
  Lejos relumbra la piedra
del áspero Guadarrama.
Agua que brilla y no suena.
  En el aire claro,
¡los alamillos del soto,
sin hojas, liras de marzo!   Hacia Madrid, una noche,
va el tren por el Guadarrama.
En el cielo, el arco iris
que hacen la luna y el agua.
¡Oh luna de abril, serena,
que empuja las nubes blancas!
  La madre lleva a su niño,
dormido, sobre la falda.
Duerme el niño y, todavía,
ve el campo verde que pasa,
y arbolillos soleados,
y mariposas doradas.
  La madre, ceño sombrío
entre un ayer y un mañana,
ve unas ascuas mortecinas
y una hornilla con arañas.
  Hay un trágico viajero,
que debe ver cosas raras,
y habla solo y, cuando mira,
nos borra con la mirada.
  Yo pienso en campos de nieve
y en pinos de otras montañas.
  Y tú, Señor, por quien todos
vemos y que ves las almas,
dinos si todos, un día,
hemos de verte la cara.
Phillip ONeil Mar 2014
IS THERE IN ESSENCE A TIME ...

Is there in essence a time that seeks to stride?
A need that whispers through the false acacias
In the cloister calm of this secluded cafe,
Laced with the clink of couples' glasses,
The breeze in silvered trees,
Nodding neighbours
And children playing on gravel paths.
Is there at work behind the manicured lawn,
The Private sign and undulating conversation -
A dynamic presence,
Pulsing like sunburning blood, speaking of
Desire on summer's first weekend?

Is there in essence a time that seeks to strive?
The summer storm brooding the sight of sun away,
The ochre messenger of light on ruddy rooves;
The shafts that gild the new green shoots
Buff the gold and copper spires.
Squalls that blow the day away
Trap shaking feathers in the warning wind,
Join the indigestive rumble of hill thunder as
Heads poke from the cafe windows:
Bronzed figures watching the blushing tiles and
Watching the light. Watching the light
Forever watching for the light.
Joseph Guerra Jul 2014
I would hug bones,
small fossils, to my chest
as if they,
like an errant breeze,
contained lost gods.

So many silent, semi-potent ghosts
melted away like
salted ice
on the long road
past my door.

In keeping their sands and secrets,
the feast of their tombs,
I search frantically beneath
palms, and dates, and acacias
for the last morsels of antiquity.

An anchor, perhaps, to
the vainglorious fictions
written by bloodied generals
and sunken eyed conquerors.
The chain rope of skepticism
pulling me deep into
and old- old river.

Sand rises; silt and watery dust,
filled to the brim with
old oil drums and drangon bones,
becomes the last venue
in which I find the
pitiful and incomprehesible demoralization
of my alcoholic fever dream
Entends comme brame
Près des acacias
En avril la rame
Viride du pois !

Dans sa vapeur nette,
Vers Phoebé ! tu vois
S'agiter la tête
De saints d'autrefois...

**** des claires meules
Des caps, des beaux toits,
Ces chers Anciens veulent
Ce philtre sournois...

Or ni fériale
Ni astrale ! n'est
La brume qu'exhale
Ce nocturne effet.

Néanmoins ils restent,
- Sicile, Allemagne,
Dans ce brouillard triste
Et blêmi, justement !
Y a última hora no quedaba nada:
ni siquiera las hojas de los árboles
-acacias-, ni el viento de la tarde,
ni la alegría, ni la desesperanza.
La caricia que pudo haber rozado
aquella piel, no se produjo porque
aquella piel no era la tuya,
ni los ojos
que me miraban eran
tus ojos, ni el deseo
-que en otro tiempo hubiera sido
suficientetenía
sentido, desviado
del cauce de ti misma.

A última hora había pasado un día,
y al sentirlo hecho sombra, y polvo, y nada,
comprendí que la luz que había llenado
sus horas,
y todas las palabras
que ocuparon mi boca, y los gestos
de mis manos,
y la fatalidad de mis designios,
y las calles que anduve paso a paso,
y el vino que bebí, y la alegría
de saber que existías en el mismo
instante,
no eran sólo el fracaso repetido
del Día del Señor, sino que eran
un día más sin ti:
comprendí con dolor que jamás, nunca
para mí habría domingos ni esperanza
fuera de tu mirada y tu sonrisa,
lejos de tu presencia tibia y clara.
Ylang Ylang Jun 2022

There's something preventing
Me
From ripping claws through
Your
Heart
    (the blood)
From breaking through
From breathing
The blood runs out
And do we really suffocate

And you can't really tell
For what the person needs
Let the acacias run through
Our crystalline veins

Little man
Big man
You
Fallin' up
In merciful hands
Of dreams
Lands
  ‌
Decid: ¿quién se queja?
¿Quién llora? ¿Quién grita?
Es que está cantando
La saboyanita.

Mañana de enero,
Con aire y con nieve,
Si no llueve, sopla,
Si no sopla, llueve.
Bajo grises nubes,
La tierra cubierta
De blanco sudario,
Parece una muerta.
¡Cuán solas las calles!
iNi quién las resiste!
¡Qué invierno tan duro,
Tan largo y tan triste!

Heladas las fuentes,
Heladas y mudas;
Almendros sin hojas,
Y acacias desnudas.
¡Ofrecen contrastes
Risueños y francos,
Los troncos tan negros,
Los copos tan blancos!

Hay sólo una niña
Bajo mi ventana,
Engendro hechicero
De augur y gitana.
Contando en diez años
Diez siglos de pena;
Los ojos oscuros,
La frente morena,
Muy ***** el cabello,
De grana la boca,
De vivos colores
El traje y la toca.
Los pies diminutos,
Que Fidias quisiera,
Los guarda en chapines
De tosca madera.

Del pobre pandero
Que agitan sus manos
Se visten y comen
Sus tiernos hermanos.
Con sólo escucharla,
Aterra y conmueve,
Y más, si la miran
Hincada en la nieve.

Por tarde y mañana
Con hondos acentos,
Que nunca sofocan
Ni lluvias, ni vientos;
Se queja, solloza,
Suspira, reclama,
Y al son del pandero
Su llanto derrama.

Su voz me perturba
Y amarga mi día:
iQué acento tan triste!
iQué voz de agonía!
Si algún compatriota
A verme se llega,
Oyendo esos cantos,
La frente doblega.
Sintiéndose triste,
Convulso y herido,
Recuerda aquel suelo
Alegre y florido,
Sus vírgenes selvas.
Sus prados, sus montes,
Y el azul eterno
De sus horizontes.
Con llanto en los ojos,
El alma turbada,
Muy lejos teniendo
La patria adorada:
¡Qué voz!-me repite-
¡Qué acento! ¡qué grito!
Sollozo de angustia,
Clamor de proscrito,
Lo más pavoroso
Que en notas existe;
¡Qué agudo! ¡Qué lento!
¡Qué amargo! ¡Qué triste!
¡Oh Dios! ¿Quién se queja?
¿Quién llora? ¿Quién grita?
Es que está cantando
La saboyanita.
Lynn Briar Sep 2019
N-L
Magnificent L,
Hope you are doing well
These luminous days
Under late spring’s spell

I remember that right
Our prune parting night
How excited you spoke
And I wisted despite

Now I’ve got something more
And in fact it’s galore
All my wishes and thoughts
I can spell till I’m sore

When this letter’d be sent
To acacias’ land
Here would be rains
Never reaching the end

Take no worry of me
Though I can’t but agree
That it’s not much of good
To be up till three

I would like just to say
While I’m fudded by May
Keep my heart safe and sound
Till the end of the day

Every now and then
Come to visit my den
Take care, love you loads
Your faithful N
Es una hermosa noche de verano.
Tienen las altas casas
abiertos los balcones
del viejo pueblo a la anchurosa plaza.
En el amplio rectángulo desierto,
bancos de piedra, evónimos y acacias
simétricos dibujan
sus negras sombras en la arena blanca.
En el cénit, la luna, y en la torre,
la esfera del reloj iluminada.
Yo en este viejo pueblo paseando
solo, como un fantasma.
En busca de la tarde
fui apurando en vano las calles.
Ya estaban los zaguanes entorpecidos de sombra.
Con fino bruñimiento de caoba
la tarde entera se había remansado en la plaza,
serena y sazonada,
bienhechora y sutil como una lámpara,
clara como una frente,
grave como un ademán de hombre enlutado.
Todo sentir se aquieta
bajo la absolución de los árboles
-jacarandás, acacias-
cuyas piadosas curvas
atenúan la rigidez de la imposible estatua
y en cuya red se exalta
la gloria de las luces equidistantes
del leve azul y de la tierra rojiza.
¡Qué bien se ve la tarde
desde el fácil sosiego de los bancos!
Abajo
el puerto anhela latitudes lejanas
y la honda plaza igualadora de almas
se abre como la muerte, como el sueño.
Chapter v
Brisehal abhors the Desert

For the desolate Dasht-e-Lut. After Brisehal bellowed being from the deserted sites of contemplation he was emerging from his great mountain of empty desert. The ghosts abounded wandering alone as if wanting to take hold of the last sparks of politics that they had left to surrender from their own lost solitude. Brisehal was a canine-headed mountain similar to Anubis, but millions of times larger and more acidic, like the hope of some parishioners to enter the garden-kingdom of Heaven!. Before the day trembled with the movement of his trembling footsteps, Brisehal spent two years moving day and night. When it roared, smaller mountainous areas were liquidated with the greatest effect of their spinning forces. They were immense thunderclaps that even scrubbed up to the spheroid clouds reddened by their rising. He turned from left to right as if wanting to exile the Desert of Lut, like casing his pro generation by bundles of optical rope or high-density fiber, which could cohabit with Vernarth in his odyssey of the Horcondising (Vernarth lineage paradise to Gaugamela) .

Before beginning the chant of his ultra-low thunder of Trumpets and armor of courage without break.  Any protocol is dissipated to inaugurate in the stands of the Iranian war-educational Sky and aesthetic drama, the analogous city in the extreme north in Irna; Located in the Talesh Mountains, just 50 km from Rasht, there is a small paradise surrounded by beauty: the city of Masal. It is with the force of his traction that he drags thousands of prayers and litanies in chains through the underground near Las Acacias where unscathed heroes have died embracing them, as the cold snowy cloak of Horcondising usually supplies, to those who dream that he will redeem the ignorance of not knowing how to be reborn next to the fallen and raised trunks, scattered and destroyed by the predatory shrew of yesteryear.

In genealogical peduncle rows of the Mandragora extension they marked the ship without an unbroken ****** sea, those who blow through their burdensome ear line up before encircling them with their smiles to swallow napkins of Hawthorn and Acacia early: (essences that their nose always vomited, to later recover them)
This is how his ancestors appear accompanying him to preserve his adventures and adventures:

"Amada y Amador, Arturo and Adelina, Bernardino and Baldomero, Cándida and Cesarina, Delfina and Dolores, Esperanza and Eulalia, Francisco and Felo, Gumercindo and Gilberto, Hilarión and Hugo, Isabel and Julio, Joaquina and Juan Bautista, Lastenia and Luidiana, Lidia and Melania, Mariano and Miguel, Nicolasa and Natalia, Pascuala and Pastora and Rosa, Agapito and Ascanio, Getulio and Leocadio, Tancredo and Tranquilino, Zacarías and Zenón ”. All his ancestors settled in the Horcondising Castle to observe his cereal sandwich that he gladly took to his mouth, and movia and arms and elbows clearing the lily vines and ivies of the
Below the branches,  Joshua de Piedra and Bernardolipo. The horns sounded in symmetrical filial genetics under the same hollow empty mausoleum.

Brisehal, confused by not getting along with Vernarth, decides to walk and approach him. Its size was millions of times larger in proportion to its little finger. Try walking on confused sides, broken geographical areas and undulating corridors of the Redemptive Pass of the Christ of Lisbon, or going straight or through the center, leaning to the left.  Until she finally looks at him and manages to retain her figure surrounded by several golden rings. He was on his back and in his ventral decubitus, creating love affairs even on the mid-morning dew grass. He managed to see him in his parapsychological regression, to support his hypnosis in the still unexplored states of his Consciousness as a toddler through the Fields of Macedonia and at night through the fields of Sudpichi, on the banks of the Horcondising neighing a glass full of Chupilca for not being less.

Brisehal was in the worst halite of the super distillate saying:
Heal me even if I am not. Heal me even if my head fails to receive you, nor my heart can reconcile you, heal me even though my longings can continue with you rolling around the world with my whole body in the midst of subversive political currents and social doctrines, rumbling falling all the divisions that separate us , even the outer walls of the farthest reaches of our separate and to be separated stocks. I will go with you until the end of this long journey, I will take your feet when they hesitate to continue and I will move your frozen head from the stocks and tricks to catch those you leave with glasses full, even with the Chacolí, who makes us go in circles through places without garment or bait through the desert where the thirtieth final Oasis awaits us ”after leaving it lying with the ivy roots of the Rio Bumodos, and by all the points of its body open to discontinue with this regression, it meets the twentieth oasis.

Twentieth Oasis next to Tel Gómel:
In the well-known art of the Afro-Asian belt of the Persian zones, of deserts that extend by hydrographic basins, it transports us to its second regression along the Bumodos River. Here with roots of 60 lures will be shed by 60 centimeters from your oasis soil. Here Vernarth will remain encapsulated from his roots of lush attire from years to years entering his veins.
Diplomacy is unleashed in Ecbatana, close to the encyclopedic collision, the shelves throb, distorting the story lines more than a paragraph inflamed by their own saffron sheets of tradition written in fornited papyrus. It has also been mentioned in the Bible by its Aramaic name Acmeta. According to Herodotus and The Biblical Oral Source.

At more than 15,000 kilometers in the Castle of Horcondising;  Her mother Luccica enters, taking the lace from her dress, to go up the northern balcony saying:
Luccica: What time can I see you, my beloved Vernarth, now that your life has been cut before the harvest. Black garlands progress along the edges of the swinging of the curtains of obscurantism…. !!
Then Luccica gets up. She goes to observe the walls of Adarve, to approach the guard and ask her if she had left the window half open. The guard moves away from the loophole and responds:
Guard: My lady, our prince Vernarth, left the Crusades for Tel Gomel. And I doubt that her absence has styled the hinges of the disheartened gate by the joy of feeling her voice proclaiming life where nothing has lived any species,  nor death where no one wants to inhabit it.

Bernardolipo, your spouse enters: do not doubt that you have well exercised the straps of the barbican interwoven with grates of poisoned ivy with the life of pagan serpents. But what else has to happen if our Vernarth forged the Rake with his burned hands, and still remains intact for anyone who tries to overcome it. Oh duel of Avernus without bosses to defend their Aras!

Guard replies:  It has been conceived through the corridors of arms, that your son is in TeL Gómel, on the magical sides of the Bumodos River. He is surrounded by people who love him. He rides stretched out on a white steed, with a white flame, with hooves of Fire…, Alikanto greater fever for elder fever in midnight of the witches who frighten the Mandragora.

The regression continues towards the region of Gaugamela, hearing with his breastplate on his sleep the distant tales of his parents in the Horcondising castle. He walks on the dry and discolored leaves, on the docile rods that hung over his veins, hydrating with magical liquids his body asleep in Bumodos and his accomplices. Every time he walked on this tube that was tubed through skies and beautiful places, he had to approach to inject the young elder wands with slopes of Bumodos concoctions, before eating and drinking delicious meals.Together with their diocesan comrades with wine.

This bacchanal episode has to do with a love story. Rather it mixes love, passion, madness and death.Or almost death. Persian legend tells that from the seeds that a bird dropped at the feet of King Djemchid (Yemshid), plants were born that bore abundant fruit, the fermented juice of which was drunk by the king's favorite. The woman fell asleep soundly under the relaxing effects of the drink, and when she woke up she felt healed and flushed, and also happy. Then the king named the wine Darou é Shah (daru eshjá), "the King's remedy." Almost with the second degree beer, he replied before Shamash Sumerio with his celestial oscillations, to approach the Philistines hand in hand to keep them intoxicated rather than healthy.Brightly and lights of the green candle in her tabernacle ... beyond the Sumeria table.

Vernarth says: Take out the table, take it out. I want to continue lying on the wild plasma floor of Bumodos. I need my odalisque Valekiria to bring ***** and elderberry to unleash the kidnapping of myself, for not wanting to be assisted nor for the greatest fear I have ever felt. This echoes in Horcondising in the ears of his mother who was in the battlement just a few minutes from sending her eagles.

Luccica says:With what number of molten bronze and burnished copper gag, I will polish your flabby regret for not being with us. Son I know that you will give your life in Gaugamela. I know that your strength is not mine or your father's. That Etrestles your brother will be in the biggest puffy nimbus clouds of the sacrosanct oracle. Pastoral flutes will take my basket to your store, loaded with goat cheese, grass bread with balsamic Palo Santo. "May the Nile Cobra not get dark your fiercely wounded Brisehal."
To be continued… / under edition
CHASING THE CURE
MARIA PANOUTSOU Jan 2020
Maria Skoularíkou Panoútsou



SALUADE


Translated from the Greek by the poet Yannis Goumas



















*


to Mark Court


Moonlight.


A bird perched on a branch.


The man under the branch listens to a cricket.


My childhood friends have aged today.


















ADIEU A






Nothing brighter than your image.


I remember you, your eyes half-shut, dear one.


Your chest all white


and the flames of your eyes, a sorrow.

Dreams are often a repeat performance


of my arriving in a metropolis with narrow, sloping streets,


much like shadows on our lips, on nights at Covent Garden.






Trampled flowers along the pavement


remind me of the cheap Italian wine,


after leaving the Chinese restaurant for uncertain formalities.


O you, god of love!






We spent our nights on borrowed beds


caressing and crying all night long.


Oh how I loved our own flesh and blood,


and we cried together and alone,


together and again alone.






We lived, what we dreamed of.


You were a bright star in the acts of God.


And now, on the damp streets of dawn,


childhood’s spittle on your grey head


censed the cold air, and you remember


the time I held your fingertips or the hem of your blouse


to prevent me from slipping on the curb.










ADIEU B






Your handwriting or your knitted brows


before they ease, take me back.


The movement of your pelvis: the most beautiful ever seen.


Your hand, held to your belly,


or your whistling, as you gingerly walked up the stairs,


like a bird about to fly.






The thought of our encounters is harrowing.


So keep to the city’s outskirts.


And your figure is wedged into the swaying cerebellum,


and memory, a lecherous rattle, brings you as a censer.


At the end of the garden you planted jasmine,

and on the bathroom’s shelf tea rose.






On those nights the gods gathered on the one pillow.


While still asleep, saliva dribbled from your mouth into mine.


Bury your anxiety, all are figments of my imagination.


You, far away, are blissfully protected.


One lonely evening as my heart was writing verses,


I saw a dream.










THE DREAM






I saw that I had passed over,


one night when a sallow moon


saw me shedding tears of love.






It kept on changing shapes.


I stalling and it preserving its shine


till dawn, waiting


for us to go together beyond the firmament.






Then my impetuous dress rushed out into the street


along with the ghosts and mice.


The wise owl came after me,


hooting for me to get back.






What a frightful call reached my sides!


What a beat stronger than a heartbeat!






It takes long to forget.


And the sky covering me is now unrecognizable.


I’ll leave, I thought, I’ll go to him.


And I reached the moon.










QUIET VOYAGE






The moon on the street made a pothole of its body


and with quick movements embroidered a cocoon.


This it used to cover me entire, as spiritual things


kept calling me to them.






First stop, a small circle of fire.


As the flames licked the darkness,


the moon was transformed into a man.


He looked like all other men I had fallen in love with.


He clasped me in his arms, and we ****** each other.


We went deep and deeper still into the fiery disc.


With throbbing movements our bodies

passed through the fire


and onto a placeless place in the form of white,

luminous dust.


I woke up when my arms had become

knobbed branches, my legs


cobwebs, and my hair cubes of chestnut leaves.


My eyes stones, my ******* swings, and my entire


skeleton a ladder for divine, wingless birds,

and I no longer knew where I was.






Then the moon came to me quietly again, and I


once more went into ecstasies of balance on its back.


I started kissing it. I kissed it all the way,


and my fingers penetrated into its cell mass.


It left me on a home seashore, on top of a rock, while it,


a shadow of its former self,

dived into the frozen waters and disappeared.










ADIEU C






This time of night only a few cars are still on the roads.


At street corners: garbage and cats.


You’ve been away from me for years.


I become a shadow of your thought,

like the wind that in the dark


passes through the cracks and comes uninvited.


In your memory’s circle I’m also like a May wreath,

placed above your bed,


and I am burdened with monastic indulgence


and shallow seas and lagoons.


We were born in a golden cage,


hearing balalaikas and seeing dances,


thus you showered me with divine chestnut

gifts from head to toe.


But whoever hasn’t lived on earth,

can’t remember the evening clouds.


Now I offer my ******* to your two hands, so let us stay


right here, as on a Saturday, a day of rest, joy, day one.


How many times didn’t I call women

from other hours to take me


with them to quieter countries.


My limbs have become museums

for loved men and women.


When the sun rises again,

don’t ask it what you asked yesterday.


Get on a horse and go to earthen

graves before you are one with


roses, raisins, feathers, oils,

pine needles and fig milk….


It’s autumn, and

I had hoped to see you

passing in the distance.


The letters are neatly

stacked in the box of pebbles,

on top of which the fan.


Let everything rest as we say goodbye.


Io, mourns alone in the castle keep,

accustomed to ancient laws.


One last look at the large bedroom

and the narrow bed next to the window.










HESIONE






Shut in her room with the scent of roses


pounded with wet stones


picked one by one from the riverbank and shining still,


Hesione struggled to remove the clasps


which she placed on a piece of cloth weaved by her grandma.






Days later she lay in bed wrapped in a sacred vestment.


Secret hopes torpedoed her body


and for a moment removed the clasps from the groin.


All worthless.






People were buried nearby.


The freshly-dug graves smelled of tamarisks.


She and the Thoans scanned the sea.


Nothing reminded one of who she was and why she mourned.


She forgot all about Hercules, thurifications and joys never to be.


Now all worthless.


















Hesione: daughter of Laomedon, king of Troy, and sister of Priam.She was chained by her father on a rock to be


devoured by a monster in order to appease the anger of Apollo and Poseidon. Hercules promised to deliver her, for a reward of Laomedon’s wonderful horses, and killed the monster.

















REFUSAL






Throw the weak days away


for them to fight with vultures and win,


for all to be done quickly and brightly


like the most brilliant stars,


like the white nights,


when loves die and in the morning lovers split


with a pain between the eyes, between the ribs.


You and I shall fight together with

pleasures and appeals,


transient and futile changes.


The love I forsook to be with you first and alone,


doesn’t wait for the moon to rise


and retaliate for my deed.






I must be going now, before you realize t

hat I don’t really exist,


that I’m only light


casting its cells for the last time


on a human face.












MEMORY









The wind passed through the trees’ foliage.


Sandy, remote corners of no-man’s land.


Pine trees’ truncated branches.






A glance stands against every lover,


and yet last night I heard our song


as the full moon rounded the sky


and ever since passion instils twilight and dawn on my windows.






All is damp, and the wicker chair a trap.


I sought to fall in with the lines on the horizon,


and monstrous conches tattooed your face


on my white arms.


A seagull won’t be saved by sea food,


but from your hand, as you feign throwing


breadcrumbs slowly on the whitecaps.










OCCURRENCES





The ball of wool rolled beyond the hills and a cautious dog sniffed at it, ears drooping, like a gull resting on a briny wooden beam washed by the sea all day.



In the middle of the road corn undulated in the wind, and beyond stretched the sea. The nights all quiet in the last years of rainy glimmer. It was at this time that the corpse came to the front door of an old house and the windows rattled.


Then people, like a multicoloured incubus, turned their backs and took the alluring road of night.


The children came out of their homes and ran laughing through the back streets. In the hullabaloo so passed Carmen, neatly dressed. Her skirt was embroidered with crescent moons, and behind, for a belt, a trimmed mantilla, a tiny nest for lilliputian birds.













PORTRAIT








The black dress lying on the wooden floor.


Sweaty hands, earlobes frosted over.


You are incapable of mastering her unruly *******.


I see men’s eyeballs


adjacent to the outer world.


I look at the lips smeared with spittle,


the steaming nostrils, the bitten nails.


The bloated bodies have tightened the wedding rings.


The soles stretch heavily. All movements slow-footed.


Dead calm.













SISYPHUS



Man discovered his image on the lakes and was amazed.


At night, when the others had gone,


he ran in secret to see this face again


on moonlit waters, shivering all over.


I, too, a child of Sisyphus, search for my image in those


shining eyes hurrying by.


As they keep their eyelids shut, dry without the flow of tears


that bring messages of hope, I pour out short words, since


the lakes now seem far away, while the rivers and seas


no longer reflect my mien and colour.

















----


Love awaits me in your abyssal-like black armpit,


in your intimate parts, intoxicated by your fluids.


But for a couple of moonbeams below the brow, your countenance is dark.


Once I dreamed of art, now I study the art of love,


how to weave shoals in dreams at night.


I approach you with lascivious movements, and before me, one and only,


you lead me, at long last, to beauties and thoughts.






I really do look inhuman


standing as I am so far from you,


leaving you to look at me thoughtfully.















THE VOYAGE






The winding road I kick,


as a motionless stork in its nest.


On the ground chickens are hatching eggs


and ***** with their early crowing


recite a melody.


Breathless rose petals lie on my *****.


I walk on the red earth


and triumph follows me tracing muddy lines.


I belong to the generation that didn’t experience war.


On paintings and in books we came to know of sorrow,


O you, valiant ones!


And we, our lives plucked clover.


And the acacias look lonely, but not without a swarm of bees!


Up till now, my food was sprinkled with a deadly dust,


and Mary from Egypt shows me the Alexandrian grapes!














----






Everything amassed in the driver’s look.


Konstantínos or Dimítrios or Nikólaos or


Aléxandros.


Tríkala-Athens  Athens-Tríkala. The others around me are dozing;


the road alone keeps me company.






I saw lots of people in the village that evening.


The half-dark, half-lighted street hid a corpse.


They are lacerating the oceanic limbs of my beautiful beaux,


men I spent nights with, struggling in their embrace to uproot victory.


The stories from one thousand and one nights wanted me alone to stay awake!















STORY WITH AN END









I’ll tear up the paper and go back in history.


When I still hadn’t met you, in Columbus’ time.


For your sake I combed my hair, did the washing,


dried hankies and watered the hyacinth.


On the door hangs the cloth of expiation.


It’ll become dusty with time, and the junk dealer will charge for it as much as for a quick cup of coffee.










TURN






Turn round. There I am.


Next to the chair, by the stove.


On the first stair, at the slightly open door


that as you go to shut it, it shrinks back


and remains open.


I let you go


relying on what freedom?


The world is full of bodies,


mine, you’d say, was the enslavement of your soul.


And you with this face, only pressed to a woman’s breast


can I forget the yearning that sews me.


It was raining that summer, I recall.


I was aged twenty and you fifteen.










IN BRIEF






Flames are flaring  the end is near 


And you, far off, were thinking of me and touching your chest.


We here cannot hear the river boat’s whistle


bringing us tidings.


We await your return  why is the truce delayed 


and devilish, light-coloured time presses us

for pillow talk.


Come back  your presence is needed

 your gentle hands convey


life’s desires bound to end, and who knows

when we’ll find Pandora’s box 






The back room bears the odour of your body.


Scattered newspapers are yellowing like autumn leaves.


Here and there I make out letters. Your love letters


written in the same alphabet.










REPORT A






The velvet armchair’s pleats have changed shape.


The stitches, tiny loose openings over the worn calico.


An apple on the soiled material,

and all around light from the candle you just lighted.


The house is packed with people.


Delicious food and coloured drinks.


There’s no silver or gold or myrrh,


only your plain and proper gestures sap everydayness.
















REPORT B






I’ll start again from the first footprints,

the first nail scratches.






Sand-hewn swirls surrounded by spume.






On high, winged things pillory the truth.






Would that a wish rinsed human nature,


and the body of clay emitted bars of gold

of devotional gifts.






My short skirt hides my groin, snow

-white and plump,


with fine pink folds, soft and damp,

with a dripping light.


The soles’ throbbing beats time, restless beat


by pacing to and fro along the pavement.






Let us all together pitch into the waking

sound,each one a dead drunk Lazarus.






On the table a slice of bread cut by

an unknown hand,


and a jug of water standing in motion.

















REPORT C








The last days went by without your fiddling


with the creases on my ******,


your running up the stairs to grab my leg


on the last but one stair. I hold my hips still,


but no hips, hidden or not, escape you,


and now you squeeze me on your legs.






The smell of spilt ink has become one with the wind.


You’ll rediscover it as a cloud, a little darker

than the brown armchair.


Stubbornly surd, it drives you there to spend your life

in the companyof thieves, liars, persons dishonest,

lecherous, insane.

What is it that remained endless and

condemned me to write,


throughout my life, fairy tales for me to read?
Lewis Hyden Jan 2019
Aloft high
There is a
Scrying wind,
Brushing up
And under
The leaves and
Stirring pines
Of the woods,
Acacias,
Tall oaks, shrubs,
Bleeding out
The softer,
More quiet place,
Like an old
Person's home,
Aloft high
Below them.
The slow goodbye.
Glotona por las moras tempraneras,
Es noche cuando torno a la alquería,
Cansada de ambular, durante el día,
Por la selva en procura de moreras.

Radiante, satisfecha y despeinada,
Con un gajo de aromo en la cabeza,
Parezco una morena satiresa
Por la senda de acacias extraviada.

Mas me asalta el temor ardiente y vivo
De que me sigue un fauno en la penumbra,
Tan cerca que mi oído ya columbra
El eco de su paso fugitivo.

Y huyo corriendo, palpitante y loca
De miedo, pues tan próximo parece,
Que mi gajo de aromos se extremece
Rozado por las barbas de su boca.
Entends comme brame
Près des acacias
En avril la rame
Viride du pois !

Dans sa vapeur nette,
Vers Phoebé ! tu vois
S'agiter la tête
De saints d'autrefois...

**** des claires meules
Des caps, des beaux toits,
Ces chers Anciens veulent
Ce philtre sournois...

Or ni fériale
Ni astrale ! n'est
La brume qu'exhale
Ce nocturne effet.

Néanmoins ils restent,
- Sicile, Allemagne,
Dans ce brouillard triste
Et blêmi, justement !

— The End —