New Poetry from Peter Golub

Brodsky Walrus Waltz

(1) Non-circularity
Brodsky is not a kind, because the feature that distinguishes members of the set is just that something be a member of the given set. Yet the items in the things might also be described as things.

(2) Mind-independence
Trotsky is not a kind, because the fact that the members figure in an example is just the result of his deciding that they should.

yesterday we drank pepper vodka and talked about the different varieties of incest
the day before that we locked our selves into a small bathroom and blew smoke into
each others faces
the day before that i woke up to find naked boys in the kitchen
before that a friend of a friend gave birth-- the day was warm, there was a light drizzle
and then there was a kiss somewhere near the train station and then a light farewell kiss
at the station
there was the room with the green forest wallpaper
photos and cognac
walking walking and walking
paying-- cops armless men women girls women girls people in the metro
there are many more
they all take something out of my bag or my jacket or my wallet (when i still had the
wallet)
the camera the phone something about poetry and byron and translation and rhyme and brodsky and trotsky and jumping off bridges and climbing climbing climbing
reading reading reading
putting it together
picking and pickling
it art it aren't they
brodsky a walrus
you kiss too much
she waits somewhere near the edge of the bath
like a small child
naked and wrinkly lost in the water
there are things to be picked up
don't i have to give something away
are there not people who would rather be with me
but here i am

Peter Golub is in Moscow, where he is translating and compiling contemporary Russian poetry. His adventures in Moscow and St. Petersburg can be followed at Chekov's Solarium.

Stay tuned for la Nueva Poesia Russkaya...