translated from Chinese by Fiona Sze-Lorrain Rustling in the grass. A little squirrel hauls a large fluffy tail among twigs and branches an instantaneous flash. Empty mountain. Birds singing. Flapping feathers so minute, yet ubiquitous . . . … Continued
Or would if I were asleep, and not awake while this child runs circles around my star pinned to the ground. She brings me the yellowest leaf, the thinnest stick, each perfectly round pebble she finds hidden in … Continued
Christian Anton Gerard’s tongue is a wetland. When he moves his lips: Palm Warblers. Thousands. His is a Venus flytrap trapping itself. It is what it is. It’s because of the girl from Memphis. Earlier he considered watching … Continued
what if I began with the duck’s egg its glossy carmine yolk bleeding on the lake’s new summer path its blue-green shell turned inside out if I say the wind was frightening, that in the early part of … Continued
Fog moon, mud moon, moons of flowers and heat— this is the friction of space on space, the endless exchange of things through which swarm the insects of confusion, as in a changer’s dream, her ear a sleeping … Continued
Different from other of my lives but not so different because you are a part of it and them and these and this. We sleep because we love to dream and I talk in my sleep, say I … Continued
Shall I be of the Sparrow or of the Blood Eagle? The curve of a rose’s thorn mimics these lungs drawn through to make two bright red wings for a small child, a hopping hellion, hung high … Continued
And here we are— sewing secrets we have wanted in some form to keep, sewing … Continued
Sea-green eyes, skin the color of dust, I come from a long line of fire signs. We seed the open field … Continued
translated from Dutch by Donna Spruijt-Metz in memoriam Joost Zwagerman Woken up in a hut on the Bay of Baratti under a blood moon Barking dogs on hilltops ripped silence to pieces held the dead … Continued
translated from Dutch by Donna Spruijt-Metz in memoriam Derk Wiersum Having had to absorb a lot of life lately I learned through so much pain that being dead doesn’t seem so bad It is up … Continued
11. One sneeze can kill you Church bells ring seven futures Blackbirds flex sunlight 100. Blunt-rolling squirrels A crow rocks an evergreen The cupola smiles 23. A dog on Front Street … Continued
When I was a child I was pixie dust. That’s only part of the story. The other parts are the boys from New England. How they put their mouths to my neck, a river on the moon. I … Continued
Translated from Swedish by Patty Crane I In the evening darkness at a place outside New York, an overlook where in a single glance you can take in the homes of eight million people. The giant city over … Continued
Translated from Hungarian by Timea Sipos Climb up onto my chariot, sweetheart. I’ll take you free of charge. The sharks planes are flying lower than ever. We have to hurry. My body is stubborn under metal. I burst forth. My … Continued
Translated from Hungarian by Timea Sipos This tunnel is underwater. It doesn’t matter whose it is. You’ve never seen anything like it: I hold the spheres of my life below sea level like a virtuoso. An inherited or learned reflex? … Continued
Complete focus can resemble utter distraction, just like there’s a point where my lover begins to look like a stranger and large things begin to look small. When the squirrel twitching in the dirt becomes, upon closer … Continued
The painter wants to say she was the speechless grass obscuring the doe’s tangle of ankles, but she was not grass. She’d forced certain realities into being; for instance, the fawn. She’d refused to paint it as … Continued
On the bottom floor of the modern Bibliothèque nationale de France, stack #368, row K, reference #p33189787272, page 368, the first comma of paragraph three is feeling a little lonely today. No one has glanced at it for … Continued
Splayed before the white plastic table two hearts an orifice several ears a hue & a small cloud all a mess and amiss like a lava lamp. Through the eye of a golden needle she sees the sun … Continued