Explore Poems: Ode

Vivem em nós innumeros;
Se penso ou sinto, ignoro
Quem é que pensa ou sente.
Sou sòmente o logar
Onde…

I love what I see because one day
I will cease to see it.
And simply because it is.
In this placid interval…

Amo o que vejo porque deixarei
Qualquer dia de o ver.
Amo-o tambem porque é.
No placido intervallo …

I do not want to remember or to know myself.
We just get in the way if we look into who we are.
Not knowing…

Não quero recordar nem conhecer-me.
Somos demais se olhamos em quem somos.
Ignorar que vivemos
Cumpre bastante…

Crown me with roses.
Yes, really, crown me
With roses.

I want to hold the hour
In my hands paganly,
Lightly…

Coroae-me de rosas.
Coroae-me em verdade
De rosas.

Quero ter a hora
Nas mãos pagãmente
E leve,

Mal…

Sabio é o que se contenta com o espectaculo do mundo,
           E ao beber nem recorda
           Que já bebeu na vida,
           Para…

Wise is the man who contents himself with the spectacle of the world,
           Who, when he drinks, has no memory…

Inside us live innumerable others;
If I think or feel, I do not know
Who is thinking or feeling.
I am only…

If I could, I would put on a facemask and walk into the desert to meet with fairies and angels.

I put on a facemask to resist sandstorms, put on a facemask to resist smog, put on a facemask to make...

She lip-syncs “Hello God,” then “9 to 5.”
She struts. Or does she fly? Like the soul,
a rhinestone, she tells us, will never die.
She’s a blush-pink Bible. Patched together,
she’s a cosmic doll. Mirror of a mirror,
she winks, her face the only...

Black and crackling curiosity,
you can take the crush of my hand
or glass or chair leg and skitter
away, the plastic of animals,
Teflon finger of the nest, chitin-bright
layer-down of trail and track,
mind with the brilliance of leg.

Part honeydew, part nectar,
part dead insect...

Misery spots Catastrophe scaling
the garden wall. Misery dials M for ________, while Catastrophe
robocalls Fate. Misery swabs her nose and recites
her birthdate. It is possible to be crushed
by the wave, while holding open
the gate. Catastrophe rolls down
a window and coughs in...

Misery from Alpha to Omega. Misery
is fluent in Latin and Greek.
Misery is the shield full of fable
and augury. Misery is the hand
holding the shield, numb to
vulnerability. It is possible
to be both arrow and bleed.
Misery makes the same mistake,
inscribing want with...

Weight of both reusable glass plus liquid means
my wrist twists down
the only direction it bends
sends drink to splash on carpets or slippery floor

Worse yet
non-flexing elbow means arm
smacks cup across room with accidental gusto 
at least once a week
Beloved coffee cups
shatter into...

the slight angling up of the forehead
neck extension                        quick jut of chin

meeting the strangers’ eyes
a gilded curtsy to the sunfill in another

in yourself      tithe of respect
in an...

Holder of loose blood. Taker of contraptions
I use when I’m brave enough to save myself.
Visual reminder that I can do it. Former container
of pickles so you smell like sour victory. Glass
house of my gender. Chest hair–maker.
Every interaction at the coffee...

At fourteen I wanted to devour you,
the twang, the strut, the perfect proletarian
butt in the black pants of you. I wanted a man
like you to sashay into town and teach me
how to be an aeroplane in water. I didn't want
to...

Everyone in me is a bird.
I am beating all my wings.   
They wanted to cut you out   
but they will not.
They said you were immeasurably empty   
but you are not.
They said you were sick unto dying   
but they were wrong.
You are singing like a...