I Animal You | Three Poems
I Animal You In the formerlyour future I saw a noteyou passed to a passing animal and that animalwas not the quiet sortwho could keep a secret.The note said that I was an animaland you were sick of my musk,the note accused meof eating the rosebushes,of bounding across streamsand fouling them in the crossing,and that…
Read MoreLove Song/Nostrand Avenue
The fruit and vegetable stands of NostrandAvenue are waving are welcoming the houseguestfromNewark, Ohio Grapefruit and gingerred beans and orangesscallions are wavingdozens of them waving Welcome, Czarinabeloved Maine-born houseguestgraduate of BrandeisProfessor of Comparative ReligionI hope the Cossacks won’t find youhere in East Flatbush Are we the only Jews tonight on this side ofNostrand Avenue?the United West…
Read MoreTranslation
by Randall Mann We arrive at Piazza Mazzini.Tonight, Sabina’s playing the roleof Girlfriend slash Translator,and I the role of Hungry Poet.It’s easier this way. X opens his double-doors.X, who wants to be a poet, of course,Roman, rheumy, limited X.This is my wife, Y, he says;she’s pretty, or was, he says,and pats her face.It is still…
Read MoreFirst Impressions
“So how do I become a writer?” I get this question a lot. Once you’ve written a book and have a book deal with a traditional publisher, you learn that people suddenly think you know something about how writing happens. I don’t know how to become a writer because I’ve almost always had the compulsion…
Read MoreHorse Thieves
Excerpted from Conjugations of the Verb To Be (Delphinium Books, 2011). A birth is full of magic. It’s like the empty box the magician closes up, taps with his wand, and spins round and round. When the spinning stops and he opens it, out comes something that wasn’t there before–a beautiful lady or tiger or…
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