Author: Andrew Zawacki

Andrew Zawacki is the author of three poetry books: Petals of Zero Petals of One (Talisman House), Anabranch (Wesleyan), and By Reason of Breakings (Georgia). Coeditor of Verse, he teaches at the University of Georgia. His translation from the French of Sébastien Smirou, My Lorenzo, is forthcoming from Burning Deck.

are & collider

are

we in an en
vironment—nowhere we can
        be & not be there—or are we
                                               of it:

dried yarrow
& piccolo basil, flaking
                  from a vase on the sill,
                               the dishwasher

anthem,
hydraulic falsetto,
             biffing & chafing the bone
                                    china plates,

soap on stainless
on stick-proof Tefal & I’m
              scared to hell of the fuck if
                                             I know,

that something will
take you, before I can go,
                 & drag me with it while
                                            leaving

me behind:
a man can unbuckle at
        nothing, at night, like ripples
                                 from a blade,

at an mp3 of birdsong in the Bois

collider

Verona inside
the body, the

 
veins, & Venice
dissolved in the mind,

 
spooling at speeds
of incommensurate order:

 
a bullet
train crossing a backgammon

 
board, or the metro
to fit inside a metro

 
-nome: help me,
someone says,

 
take off my face