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Alice Shapiro
Alice Shapiro
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15:59 m
AFTER THE END AFTER THE BEGINNING
By Margo Berdeshevsky
Tears in the eyes of fishes —Basho
After the end of the world, the dragon flies are the first,
returning. Frogs in chorus in a lead-weight rain, the bones
of buffalo, pissing.
After the end of the world, a shredded page, uprooted
monster trees. A blue jacket, a lace head cloth, a black
boot on a wheelchair stem, a mudded page of the floating
Koran.
After the end of the world, flooded rice fields, a blind
child seeing ghosts of ghosts, stabs his forefingers in his
eyes, screaming.
After the end of the world, Ayesha is chopping chiles to
spice our gruel—I was crazy but now I sing for the world,
she says and says and says again. After the end of the world,
a crazy woman who loves God, singing ahead of the heat.
After the end of the world, a woman who sings that the bad
ones perished, Allehu Akbar in the next hot dawn again
and again, ever after.
After the end of the world, over and over—I lost, I lost, I lost,
and God is great, the mosquito ballet meeting the dragon flies,
circling.
This is not a dream, this is a tragedy, a boy making his words
a sing-song, spindle-shins, kicking. After red words on the broken
columns: this is not a dream, this was tragedy, fresh fish who may
have wedding rings in their bellies.
After the end, a new market. After the end, what kind of town had
it been? yellow velvet, and minarets. a shredded boot. blue
china, broken. a baby's rubber thong, not screaming.
After the finale, smiles left that say, I lived. I dream of
corpses drowned in the noonday heat. What time is it now?
After the end of the world, the taro plant blooms in another
language, its flood-root, fetid emerald in the mud. After the end
of the world bruised dirty determined Sisyphus —who
ever breathes—rebuilds.
—Aceh, December 26, 2004—
From "But A Passage in Wilderness" (Sheep Meadow Press/2007)
Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008 by Margo Berdeshevsky
By Margo Berdeshevsky
Tears in the eyes of fishes —Basho
After the end of the world, the dragon flies are the first,
returning. Frogs in chorus in a lead-
After the end of the world, a shredded page, uprooted
monster trees. A blue jacket, a lace head cloth, a black
boot on a wheelchair stem, a mudded page of the floating
Koran.
After the end of the world, flooded rice fields, a blind
child seeing ghosts of ghosts, stabs his forefingers in his
eyes, screaming.
After the end of the world, Ayesha is chopping chiles to
spice our gruel—I was crazy but now I sing for the world,
she says and says and says again. After the end of the world,
a crazy woman who loves God, singing ahead of the heat.
After the end of the world, a woman who sings that the bad
ones perished, Allehu Akbar in the next hot dawn again
and again, ever after.
After the end of the world, over and over—I lost, I lost, I lost,
and God is great, the mosquito ballet meeting the dragon flies,
circling.
This is not a dream, this is a tragedy, a boy making his words
a sing-
have wedding rings in their bellies.
After the end, a new market. After the end, what kind of town had
it been? yellow velvet, and minarets. a shredded boot. blue
china, broken. a baby's rubber thong, not screaming.
After the finale, smiles left that say, I lived. I dream of
corpses drowned in the noonday heat. What time is it now?
After the end of the world, the taro plant blooms in another
language, its flood-
ever breathes—rebuilds.
—Aceh, December 26, 2004—
From "But A Passage in Wilderness" (Sheep Meadow Press/2007)
Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008 by Margo Berdeshevsky
Margo Berdeshevsky’s newest book is Beautiful Soon Enough, a collection of cutting edge short stories and accompanying photo-montages by the author. Her poetry collection, But a Passage in Wilderness, was published by The Sheep Meadow Press in 2007. A new book of poetry, Between Soul And Stone, is forthcoming, again from Sheep Meadow Press.
Born in NYC, she had a first career as an actress, appearing at The Public Theatre and at Lincoln Center and in premieres of Harold Pinter, David Hare, and touring the USA as a Shakespearean ingenue. Her literary honors include the American Book Review/Ronald Sukenick Award for Innovative Fiction (given to Beautiful Soon Enough;) the Robert H. Winner Award from the Poetry Society of America; The Chelsea Poetry Award; Kalliope’s Sue Saniel Elkind; places in the Pablo Neruda and Ann Stanford Awards; 6 Pushcart Prize nominations & 2 special mention citations for works in leading literary journals including Agni, Pleiades, The Kenyon Review, Poetry Daily, Poetry International, New Letters, The Southern Review, Confrontation, Women's Studies Quarterly; & she is published in Europe: in The Poetry Review (UK,) The Wolf, Europe, & Siècle 21.
In spring of 2005 she traveled to Sumatra to work in a survivor's clinic and to create her Tsunami Notebook of documentary photographs and poems. Next at the gate, from Red Hen Press in California, is a cross-genre-poetic novel, titled Vagrant. A lifelong traveler, Berdeshevsky lives in Paris, (where she's considering conversations with madame de Sévigné's ghost who lurks, maybe, in the courtyard!)
for more info, pls see website: http://www.redroom.com/author/margo-berdeshevsky
To order her books from Amazon Author page: http://tinyurl.com/ygft9wu
Reading on youtube: http://www.redroom.com/video/reading-beautiful-soon-enough
To order her books from Amazon Author page: http://tinyurl.com/ygft9wu
Reading on youtube: http://www.redroom.com/video/reading-