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Collage Eleven
- Michigan State University Press
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129 Collage Eleven Ziba Karbassi As much as I try to run from death-ness, my height doesn’t suit life’s patience Patience Has the aura of dropsy rain Stiffened downpours of risk & un-worry And calloused fingers don’t know how to how to in this dank dark Put right my hat or yellow-shiny coat of rain over my head When the only pearl of rain is not my pearl In this shot-earth his breath is not here And I am not earth-less I’m breath-less In this short-voice not even breath breathes between walking feet I cannot walk straight into this poem I can’t grow taller When he is not shore I cannot sea Onthemetalnervesofthistown noinstrumentofmusiccanplayme Under infected teeth my feet start to break-dance As much as I try to run away from death-ness my height doesn’t fit with life’s patience As much as I try to chrysalis myself from this mausoleum Always the collapsing walls are too tardy for my head As much as I try to gulp in this sea salt of its salt I becalm My feet run away from me I dwindle into the distance The lessen of my life always the diminished me Leave me be I have wasted away Death death is most welcome Only in the embrace of my grave engrave this: I had only his embrace less in this life Translated by Stephen Watts and Ziba Karbassi ...