{ count your ribs. }

I am currently listening to this year's Proms performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony which is a piece of music that I absolutely adore. It's a great Proms tradition to perform it every year and I am a little bit obsessed with it. But my gosh: amazing.

Sometimes I am like this. And sometimes I'm obsessed with Lady GaGa. So, you know.

--

That's really all I had to say.

{ Maya Jewell Zeller: Amber. }

Amber
by Maya Jewell Zeller

Because you tell me
you want to strip
at State Line,
I tell you
how a woman will always feel
like a body folded around another body,
the layered one
she wants to slough off
like a heavy shawl, furred skin
lifted in alien winds,
skeletal, petal-thin.
Were you named for their honey,
Amber, orange and dripping
from your father’s
comb? His face black with net,
hands the hard skin of a man
who works with diesel day
after day. The hands spin
you, your head
humming, legs long as clover
stamen spindling from a fastened core.
Twirl, the pole your wand,
sky-anchored, your hair a hundred wings,
dust-rubbed, hot whir of clapping,
green field, feet sticky,
eyes the flecked stone bottom
of creek-bed, a man’s beard
by your thigh. But you turned
left when he said
left. Where are the flowers
you expected?
They’ll ask you to sit
on their laps, Amber,
lick the rims
of their beers. Yes, I think—
yes. I can hear the bees now.
They want out
of their striped
and heavy clothes.

{ Nicanor Parra: Lord's Prayer. }

Lord's Prayer
by Nicanor Parra

Padre neustro que estas en el cielo
Lleno de toda clase de problemas
Con el ceno fruncido
Como si fueras un hombre vulgar y corriente
No piense mas en nosotros.

Comprendemos que sufres
Porque no puedes arreglar las cosas.

Sabemos que el Demonio no te deja tranquilo
Desconstruyendo lo que tu construyes.

El se rie de ti
Pero nostros lloramos contigo.

Padre nuestro que estas donde estas
Rodeado de angeles desleales
Sinceramente
no sufras mas por nosotros
Tienes que darte cuenta
De que los dioses no son infalibles
Y que nosotros perdonamos todo.

--

( translations. )