Mouth Elegies

a false trans. of Jen Robinson's "Vague Sad Poem"

   "If there is a paradise on earth
   come to Samarkand when you're ready to see it"
                                --'Ata-Malik Juvaini


Genius classmate housekeys      Borrowed grief of a blue buddy method
Amazingly covert grace       The eyes of old grief & Etan Patz
as Heisenberg poster boy        This is the only certain escape from jury duty

Old potatoes in a game of stickball       Total justice doesn't mean total peace
Martinis behind closed doors        Pleasant but hard to pronounce cultural neckwear differences
A view of the city through a glass of cherry alka-seltzer      cough syrup a soothing layer

Springtime collaborators play with each other as the other
A new age of erosion:        Low sounds upon the shore upon the shadowy frontier
A fearless wedding with red highlights that slip from paradise