Two Poems
Rent from DeepDyve- Two Poems
letter to khaled
Khaled, I carry your people on my back like a stone.Will we be condemned to this long climb,Sisyphus of red pearls encased in their box,you inside me like marrow in bone,fire in the sun, silver in the moon?And sand from all the world's hourglasseswould not be enough to cover the dead in Gaza cemeteries.Khaled, if only I had beautiful enough words,and an angel to whip me with his quill,words as luminous as dawn, caress, petal, quetzal feathers,so the stone might roll off my back,plummeting lead that sinks to the dregswhere your dead have ended up.
navigating wind in the chest
I walked the path between two solsticeswith a swarm of angelsa flock of insects, miniature jaguarsand the rattle of day still reverberating.Those seminal forcesluring me to the honeycombwhere the hummingbird and winter cicada whirred.Navigating toward high seasDad and Momare two coastsglued on the scorched edge of the map.
I want to know what language I will speakon my deathbed. [End Page 145]
Françoise Roy was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, Canada. She has published three novels in Spanish and one in French, a book of short stories, a plaquette, and eleven poetry books, most in Spanish. She has translated close to fifty books, mostly of poetry. Her awards include the Tijuana National Poetry and DJS Translation Award. She lives in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Amanda Fuller is a poet, translator, and co-founding editor of Locked Horn Press. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Poetry International, Serving House, San Diego Poetry Annual, BlazeVOX, and Fugue.
