Man Stands Outside the World Perched not so high,in squatty crouched gargoyleposition. Man stands outside the worldand I am that man. Rubbing a morning’s dewfrom gushing goldfingers. A...

A Sonnet for My Wife, the Surgeon From where do you draw so much strength each dayTo fight the fight of life and death despairWhen...

Billy G The snake circled the island, up the Hudson, down the Harlem,into the East, and around the point past Billy G’srent-controlled building on the...

Breathe I can’t breathe, said the fish who soon would dieI am a lie, sung the bird who could not flyI am the truth, said...

What’s Left of My Grandmother’s Signature In her room at Poet’s Walkher first name begins witha cursive J elegantlycompleting itself on the wall, resting in suspended...

The Night I Hear Sharon Olds Read Some rooms look dead from the outside.I eat late. I drink so much. Cold moon over an old drugstore...

I do not remember whereThe small town detectiveSat down with meTo take my statement These are the kinds of memoriesOur brains just can't hold on...

Blonde Hair Hides as much as Killed Stories No one comes over and you imagine yourself some squeaky clean museumwith the floors waxed nightly out...

The Thing about Mornings I’ll never forget We slept Splayed on memorial benches Morning dew falling on locks like overgrown caterpillars Crawling to crystallized captivity Your smile Sunrise evaporating what moisture...

Translated from the Albanian by Ani Gjika We continue our celebration of Women in Translation Month this week. Katherine E. Young, Poet Laureate Emerita of...