Who led me across the city that morning?
Behind the railway station, he sat me down at a low
wooden table and produced a bottle. We cracked it like a watermelon.
My Adam's apple bobbing, as though I and the rails had shared the swallow.

On the fence was a pumpkin. I used to think the elixir of debility
was in the potato. But no! It's in the pumpkin,
an octave below. From the instability
of its inner glow, fingers of pulp emerge as if counting.

Я ніколи не мешкав у пустелі,
яка нагадує край воронки
з діркою, що кочує. Прості ретельні
види, їх вагомі перевороти

О, друзів моїх сад, де я із торохтілкою
сторчу, про людське око свищу тут навсібіч.
Посріблимо кишки орданською горілкою,
нехай живе нутро, що мерехтить нам ввіч!

In a factory where they make chloramphenicol
          cats          loiter

one—gnarled
          like a woodblock: waterlogged, barnacled
another—thin with an elongated tongue—
          a fireman’s hook
and the third—huge like a calm
          in the Persian Gulf