imagine the angels of bread...

tryna digest at least two collections of poetry each week as i feel so behind in my reading of other writers...this week; imagine the angels of bread, by martin espada -intimate and gritty memoir poetry, painful to experience and distinctly masculine. the circumstances of many of the pieces make them very political as well. excellent story/poem crafting. here's a short piece that i love:

my cockroach lover

The summer i slept

on JC's couch,

there were roaches

between the bristles

of my toothbrush,

roaches pouring

from the speakers

of the stereo.

A light flipped on

in the kitchen at night

revealed a Republican

National Convention

of roaches.

One night I dreamed

a giant roach

leaned over me,

brushing my face

with kind antennae

and whispering, "I love you."

I awoke slapping myself

and watched the darkness

for hours, because i realized

this was a dream

and so that meant

the cockroach

did not really love me.

and spring essence, the poetry of ho xuan houng, translated by john balaban -i adore rebellious women!...this is a beautiful book written by an eighteenth-century vietnamese concubine who subtly disses the male order of her day... here's one of her less delicate poems:

male member

newborn, it wasn't so vile. but, now, at night,

even blind it flares brighter than any lamp.

soldierlike, it sports a reddish leather hat,

musket balls sagging the bag down below.

this was the 18th century! imagine!! hahahahaha!!

more later...christa