ARS AMANDI
She says I am not sure I am in love with you anymore
and you wish
she did not love you at all
rather than turn overnight into
an avida dollars.
(The poets no longer have a future in this post-human ghetto,
pathetic studs,
lost in the field facing the slaughterhouse)
ARS AMANDI
Îți spune nu știu dacă te mai iubesc
Şi tu îți dorești mai degrabă ca ea
să nu te mai iubească
Decît să se fi transformat peste noapte-ntr-o
avida dollars.
(Poeții nu mai au viitor în ghettoul ăsta postuman,
Patetici armăsari sexuali,
Rătăciți pe cîmpul din faţa abatorului)
LITHIUM
I shaved my inguinal area
and placed around my neck
the silver necklace
as if she could see me
I checked myself in the mirror:
sadder and more handsome
than ever
I put on my shorts
I went out on the balcony
the wind carries
vortices of petals & dust
& like some amber worms
my energetic fields
draining through my wrists
through my Adam’s apple
right there where she so often
placed her forehead
and, adjusting
her breath,
she fell asleep,
my poor bipolar Amazon.
LITHIUM
M-am epilat inghinal
Şi mi-am pus la gît
Lănțișorul de argint
Ca și cum m-ar vedea
M-am uitat în oglindă:
Mai trist & mai handsome
Ca niciodată
Mi-am pus pantalonii scurți
Am ieșit pe balcon
Vîntul duce vortexuri
De petale & praf
& ca niște viermi din ambră
Fluviile mele energetice
Scurse prin încheieturi
Prin mărul lui adam
De acolo de unde și-așeza
De atîtea ori fruntea
Şi, reglîndu-și,
Biata mea amazoană bipolară,
Respirația,
Adormea.
WHAT TO WRITE TO IRINA FROM IAȘI
The Orthodox youth, the ideological traditionally
embroidered blouses disappeared from Iași,
I explain to the little dog in Pogor Park,
all that is left is love,
whole, pulsing inside the brick house
waiting for me every evening when
I come back from the city, and in the morning
levitating, golden and clear,
over my floating island.
All that is left is love,
I explain to the mongrel cocker spaniel,
Irina kisses me through the screen, like in the A-ha video,
I caress her turquoise eyes, her lips, her cheekbones,
on the terrace at Piața Unirii
or at the Britpop evening at Acaju.
Between us – a screen, a thirty-minute flight,
the friendly/ uncaring world,
car crashes, NATO drills,
between us – love is regenerating
cells, chestnut trees are blooming anew.
CE SĂ ÎI SCRIU IRINEI DE LA IAŞI
Tinerii ortodocşi, iile ideologice
Au dispărut de la Iaşi,
Îi esplic căţeluşei din Parcul Pogor,
A rămas dragostea,
Intactă, pulsînd înăuntrul casei de cărămizi
Aşteptîndu-mă serile cînd
Mă întorc din oraş, dimineaţa
Levitînd, aurie şi clară,
Peste insula mea plutitoare.
Dragostea a rămas,
Îi esplic cockeriţei corcite,
Irina mă sărută prin ecran, ca în videoclipul A-HA,
Eu îi mîngîi ochii turcoaz, buzele, pomeţii,
Pe terasa din Piaţa Unirii
Sau în seara britpop de la Acaju.
Între noi – un ecran, 30 de minute de zbor,
Lumea prietenoasă / indiferentă,
Accidente rutiere, exerciţii NATO,
Între noi – dragostea regenerează
Celulele, castanii înfloresc a doua oară.
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Clara Burghelea has published two poetry collections: The Flavor of the Other (Dos Madres Press 2020) and Praise the Unburied (Chaffinch Press 2021). Her poems and translations have been published in Gulf Coast, Delos, The Los Angeles Review and elsewhere. She is the review editor of Ezra, An Online Journal of Translation and a PhD student in literature at University of Texas at Dallas.
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Stefan Manasia is a Romanian poet and journalist, editor of Tribuna cultural magazine. He founded Thoreau’s Nephew Reading Club in Cluj in 2008, alongside Szántai János and François Bréda, which became the largest Romanian-Hungarian literary community in Transylvania. He published six volumes of poetry and had his poems translated in Hungarian, French, German, Polish and Modern Hebrew. He is also the author of a collection of essays and literary chronicles called The Aroma Stabilizer and a short story collection, The Chronovisor.
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Brian McPartlon (Schenectady, New York, 1948) attended the School of Visual Arts in New York. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Pie Projects, Santa Fe and the International Art Museum of America, San Francisco. Press includes LandEscape Art Review, Magazine 43, Dream Noir, Arkana, and Pasatiempo.
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