national poetry month || rendering
TRANSCRIPT
University of Northern Iowa
RenderingAuthor(s): Lee PetersonSource: The North American Review, Vol. 289, No. 2, National Poetry Month (Mar. - Apr.,2004), p. 35Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25127150 .
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NANCY NAHRA
6.
Cover, wrap, conceal, reserve
from the sun what you need, the desert teaches.
Hide what you may later enjoy, a logic plain as dates that hang bright at the top of the palm. Come
inside the tent to my folds, my riches.
Barefaced fools thrive, I know, believe
my veil makes them invisible or keeps me from seeing brutal
truth. A mouth crooked with laughter that makes hate quickly to shrink to die in his dry, still tongue.
Risk the tent, see if you fit inside
the soul's alembic.
7.
"Do good and throw it in the ocean. "
?Arab proverb
The ancient way dances before it walks as the road to spice follows its star anise on a journey that counts indulgences in saintly mace, holy mocha, cinnamon,
the cardinal point in our floating compass. Let the nose track aroma's empire,
all those stories, all those young men
who gave away their riches.
Corrupted text, pure reader, a worm hole ate its sense.
The giving away made their wealth. Now I reveal what no sense, no spice on the tongue ever tells the mind. So I pass through the
eye of a rich man and let him
dream the feast.
LEE PETERSON
Rendering M?lica
- Grbavica,
Bosnia Herzegovina, 1993
The one on top set his teeth.
Mama seemed to me
the stronger one even then.
The shutters' slats broke the room into lines
like her fingers
covering my eyes in the street.
Under her the slipcover gathered. The little roses closed in her fist.
They took their time. They took turns
drinking out of my favorite cup.
(I thought I would eat my tongue.)
The wooden feet of the sofa
creaked against the wooden floor.
And when they decided it was done
Mama lay as if sleeping.
She crossed the room
and beat the door they'd left open
until night came
until we dreamed that pounding.
March-April 2004 NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW 35
This content downloaded from 185.2.32.96 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 01:51:24 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions