ABANDONMENT
by Maggie Bàra
Somewhere in life she died,
the s.a.d. light leaving her,
the intense meaningfulness becoming too much to take.
So, she is an abandoned home,
with flawless shelves and wires,
waiting for the vacation to be over.
A space set aside somewhere near the soul,
waiting for a filler,
a crown,
a cap,
gilded cavities.
MISTRANSLATION
by Jonathan Andrews
Words, words, words
Pour from the mouth.
Misinferred,
They fall on a deaf mind.
Bridges, pathways, electrons
Scramble to respond.
They hastily package
A reciprocal song.
But the tune is turgid and the music’s malformed and the singer is slurred and restraint retreats
And where one little word would suffice you impose milliards
Evermore intricate, evermore elongated, evermore indecipherable;
Gehenna’s maw is grinning wide: They’re lost in the crashing waves of a Stygian cascade and have to ask
“What?”
So you try it again.
Bit better this time.
But it’s still a hard slog
To neutralise
The mismatched signs.
And you try so-so-hard now
To flower your words.
But now meaning cowers,
Slashed by secateurs.
So you’re quiet.
Because that’s easier.