Spring

BY  EL FR IE DE J EL IN EK
TRANSLATED BY  MI CH AE L H OF MA NN
april breath 
of  boyish red 
the tongue crushes 
strawberry dreams 

                                  hack away wound 

                                  and wound the fountain 

and on the mouth 

perspiration white 
from someone's neck 

a little tooth  
has bit the finger 
of  the bride the 
                                  tabby yellow and sere 
                                  howls 

the red boy  

from the gable flies 
an animal hearkens 
in his white throat 
                                  his juice runs down 
                                  pigeon thighs 

a pale sweet spike 

still sticks 
in woman white 
lard 

an april breath 
of  boyish red 
 Tonight
BY  EL FR IE DE J EL IN EK
TRANSLATED BY  MI CH AE L H OF MA NN
tonight 
my sparrows 
let go 
the snow 
                                    into fields of carnations swollen with anger. 

tonight 
the three popes 
proclaim 
the revolution 
                                    against teenage television. 

seals smash 
their heads 
bloody 
their heads 
on the elevators 
the paternoster elevators 
                                    which delays the holding of their conference. 

tonight 
my sister 
the wind's bride 
gives blood 
for the cello 
of the jericho desert 
                                    which prompts the trombones                                      
                                    to hold a protest meeting. 

tonight  
I hang your lips 
like birdseed 
outside my door 
and observe 
through the window 
their death-struggle 
with the she vulture. 

tonight 
let go 
the snow

Contempt
BY  EL FR IE DE J EL IN EK
TRANSLATED BY  MI CH AE L H OF MA NN
my puppet-strings are the 
sweet decaying lamps I flutter round. 

I am as immense 
as a black kid with a spinning top. 

drowned tripper fat 

crawls into hollow cuffs to be sewn up 
like hot cats 
cracked soft caryatids in tails. 

I'll force you all to your knees 

your dirty muzzles will squawk 
out of your faces. 

and I will continue to climb 

I'll spread my thin arms along the queer walls 
till they bleed. 

I'll reach into threadbare velvet 

so that you bash yourselves like poor moths 
on corners of night. 

the reason I'm here is 

to scratch all the white bellies 
squatting down there. 

your stupid silence I will  just 

toss up in the air. 

I am as sky high 
as all your staring regards laid end to end 
on the ground somewhere 
lies my broken smile.