The American Poetry Review

FIVE CENTOS AFTER SERHIY ZHADAN

Cento 1, What We Live For, What We Die For

—based on first lines by Serhiy Zhadan

Take only what is important. Take the letters,
the dark shattered wicked winter.

You hear everything passing,
stories connected with murders, knife wounds.

Remember how winter began in your town.
The hot heart of the year is burning.

Where areYou will reply today touching the warm letters.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The American Poetry Review

The American Poetry Review2 min read
Kids’ Stuff
She came in // about one pm // on a Monday // she had a gun //In math class //they got the memo //Lockdown is a scary word //only if you’ve neverdone it //I ask them what it meant //a “lock-and-teach” //they saidjust that //but there’s another classi
The American Poetry Review2 min read
Two Poems
I waited forever for my parents to die so I could say at least one true thingbut mean. And so I wouldn’t die myself with those two unaccounted for in a Hades of voles and worse. The die-hards that they were? I wanted to say it.The riot of horror and
The American Poetry Review34 min read
END OF MESSAGE On Norman Dubie
1. “Are you by your machine?” he says. “Yeah, I’m here.” I turn the phone on speaker, set it on my desk, open a Word doc. By “machine”—I know by now—he just means computer. I don’t think I ever hear him say that word: Computer. I know he did, once, w

Related Books & Audiobooks