[New-Poetry] Mad Libs

[Parker, Alan Michael]

Hey.

Didn't know this had stuck--sorry for not posting the "real poem" (a
translation) sooner.

- AMP

****

Wall Calendar



December. An arctic wind, new
And bitter. Angels and polar bears
Sink into their winter slumber.
Just then,
Above, in the folds of soft snow,
The traps of spring get set.

June. In a military ceremony
Filled with sunshine,
The man is buried at noon.
Just then
It is midnight in the woman's belly. The fetus
Reports for duty: he recognizes the code.

December. Suddenly the boat
Turns over, I drown in a squalid
Sea, and watch, as expected,
Just then
All my stolen years drift by
Like sweet water .



 - Dan Pagis, trans. from the Hebrew by Tsipi Keller. 
The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry, 
J.D. McClatchy, ed. (NY: Vintage, 1996).