Jorge Etcheverry
Analogy
The feathers of birds
the carapaces of insects
absorb and block heat and cold
to protect delicate inner tissues
just as warm dwellings are hidden
in all latitudes on earth
This is a law we can extrapolate
to the history of all empires
flourishing in their Capital Cities
in wanton luxury
surrounded by living walls of flesh
made up of the best men
chosen from the plains and marshes
to defend those cities
The methods have changed
The core remains the same.
Ready & Reddish
I share in the purest essential features
of the redneck lifestyle
I hang around pool halls
Not long ago I had a motorcycle
I still like to go to rock concerts at Barrymore's
or the Gilmour for country music
for a chance to dance with a gorgeous Méti girl
In the welfare line up
or at the boarding house
I've had a talk with a run-down, skid-row prophet.
This kind of life should lead to revolution.
Rednecks of America!
Rednecks of Canada and Québec!
Go red!
Current Affairs
With the help of Megabites & Microbites
(if the latter exist and don't bite)
and Word for Windows and the Web
a Modem and a Scanner
I will wait
for the new Word Perfect
(for my basic text)
Then I’ll be able to write
if there's nothing to watch on TV
or no interesting movie downtown
If the current financial crisis in Europe
lasts long enough
I’ll finish a project
before it becomes obsolete
or "dated" as they say
It happened to me with Timor and Kosovo
with the Gulf War
Meech Lake
the Oka Stand-off
I hope I'll have time to write about
the depletion of the Ozone Layer
before it burns my fingertips
Poets should abandon this tendency
to write about current & catchy issues
I vote for a return to Existentialism
Phenomenology
De-constructivism
or some other philosophy
They last longer
Darwinism III
We are indisputably primates
who combine our lust
and Alpha-male based politics
with quite a sophisticated social life
When I take you out for dinner
you almost always go for the lobster
When thrown into boiling water
the crustacean emits a crying sound
Some say it’s cause it likes it
You say “it’s better
to put it in the pot when the water’s still cold”
I don’t know about that
Later on we might watch
the Discovery Channel on TV:
life in the Serengueti
You cry out each time a lion kills a wildebeest
but I tell you: it’s clean and it’s final
On the other hand we’re like insects
not only in social complexity:
The wasp lays its eggs on the caterpillar
so the larvae will eat and prosper
We boil lobster, force feed turkeys, etc.
We’re among the few living creatures
who torture their food
Youth
And the flower of the race allowed the new generation to fall like light petals on the dark earth and the elders grew hopeful as they lived out their remaining days, silently watching and enjoying the youngsters as they practised the art of living
"The chains that oppress us will in time be broken by our sons or grandsons who are stronger than we. The winds blowing from the East and from the West will fecundate their actions and thoughts like other winds that swell the sails of boats"
But blood covered the cobblestones like moss, like the parasite that afflicts the elm tree, as the most audacious and beautiful of this new flock got ready to take off vertically, like quail
And hope, like a paper flower, burned in the breast and withered beneath the closed lips of those who were beginning to look at things through new eyes
Some of our best offspring had the good luck to die young
This has made us more cautious about the rest
The marshes that surround the city are a breeding ground for disease
Translated by Jorge Etcheverry, edited by Sharon Khan
