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Daring Winter Escape
that December,
rocking in a chair
and reading Rumi,
I ceased to reflect in a mirror.
you broke into tears:
"how can I trust you ever again?"
in January,
I began to levitate
by the chandelier
reading Hayam.
it made you nervous.
you learned to
throw the rope like a cowboy,
pulling me back into bed.
and in February,
I went into spontaneous combustion,
but you, ready for contingencies,
slept with a fire-extinguisher
and put the flames out,
destroying my plan
of daring escape
to the twelfth century Persia.
Translated by author and Marina Rubin
Everybody! Can I Get Some Sleep?
Everybody! can I get some sleep!
mother!
don't wake me up at 1 am,
I'm already 32 years old
and before going to bed
I brushed my teeth.
friends!
don't bring vodka every night!
in the mornings my brain is scrambled anyway
never mind the hangovers.
girls!
how much sex is enough for you?
stop pushing my hand where no man has gone before
my fingers feel at home only on the keyboard.
president!
stop declaring war to every damn country on Earth!
I keep having a dream third day in a row
where I am in camouflage,
I wake up in cold sweat
believing that I can do one hundred push-ups
I try and fall flat on my face
on the second one.
giggling mugs behind my windows!
stop laughing at my insomnia!
tomorrow I will purchase a rifle
and shoot you down.
Translated by author and Marina Rubin
Alex Galper: Being brought to America at the age of 19 left Alex Galper no choice.
He had to keep on writing poetry in the only language that he knew - Russian, and hope
that one day it would be recognized in his homeland. Seventeen years later,
the English translations of his poems have published in over 30 magazines in USA and UK,
whereas in Russia, he is considered too marginal, extreme, and "too-American" to publish. Go figure...
Email: Alex Galper
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