-
“The Spider Spins” by Sean Karns
In its foliage, the spider rides the vibratingweb. It is patient and waits Buddha-like,as if it knows something greater—that survival requires less consumption,that survival is basic— therefore its needsare minimal. When its hunger is met,it is blessed, so much so, it wraps its dead in silk.It seems simple, the spinning of the web.The spider’s world is instinctual—it ignores the chaos-order beyond its web. -
“Of Trips, Of Fires,” by Edgar Rincón Luna, Translated by Toshiya Kamei
Of Trips, Of Fires“Only strangers travel owning everythingI have nowhere to go”Leonard CohenI drink a cup of coffee
you drink a cup of fire
behind our eyelids
two tears hit like rain
old photos go through the dust
a cemetery of ashes
a patio filled with our old cadavershave we really built this wasteland for us?
is the tattoo of sand on the skin ours? -
“Crepuscule” by Daisy Bassen
Vanity is important as snow,As the deer in the yardThat is covered by snow, unpockedWith boot-prints. She was more beautifulAs a fawn. I wanted her to be mine,To come every twilight and look at meBecause we were alike somehowAnd it was worth the risk to stand there,Like an India ink etching, a meal for a coyote.But I was irrelevant or perhaps deer do not seeVery well when night is coming, -
“The Author Dedicates These Lines to His Beloved Self” by Vladimir Mayakovsky (translated by Val Vinokur)
The Author Dedicates These Lines to His Beloved Self
Heavy.
Like six blows.
“Caesar’s unto Caesar––God’s unto God.”
But where is a guy
like me
supposed to go?
Where is my lair prepared?If I were
still little,
like the Great Ocean,
I’d get up on my wavy tiptoes,
caress the moon with the tide.
Where can I find a beloved,
someone just like me?
She wouldn’t fit into the tiny sky!O if only I were penniless!
Like a billionaire! -
“The Diagnosis” by James Tate
……………Lincoln was sixty years old when the
doctor told him he only had forty more years
to live. He didn’t tell his wife, with whom
he confided everything, or any of his friends,
because this new revelation made him feel all
alone in a way he had never experienced before.
He and Rachel had been inseparable for as long
as he could remember and he thought that if she
knew the prognosis she would begin to feel alone,
too. But Rachel could see the change in him
and within a couple of days she figured out
what it meant.
