Size / / /

The majestic blooming

of the century plant

reveals petals of pure yellow

and stained cream,

distinct pistils and stamens.

I will love you, she said,

like Freud loved the id

in its trammeled fury.

The jaws of my brain,

adrift in opaque bestiality,

question the integrity

of a Pythagorean

reclining nude.

The heel stamp of my pen

assassinates the art

of nuclear mystics.

I will love you, she said,

like Darwin loved evolution.

Things change.

In an algid moment

the final consequences

of the abominable resonance

of a soft and hairy

architecture are revealed.

Diacritical exclamations!

The ravishing comprehension

of cannibal imperialism

by a paranoid critic.

I will eat you like the peach

I eat every Sunday, she said,

in the sky black morn.

Having teased

the sensitive mimosa

in the circular greenhouse

late that afternoon,

afterward,

he would drink peppermint tea

with the ghost of morning.




Bruce Boston is the author of forty-seven books and chapbooks, including the novels The Guardener's Tale and Stained Glass Rain. His writing has received the Bram Stoker Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Asimov's Readers Award, and the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. You can read more about him at www.bruceboston.com and see some of his previous work in our archives.
Current Issue
22 Apr 2024

We’d been on holiday at the Shoon Sea only three days when the incident occurred. Dr. Gar had been staying there a few months for medical research and had urged me and my friend Shooshooey to visit.
...
Tu enfiles longuement la chemise des murs,/ tout comme d’autres le font avec la chemise de la mort.
The little monster was not born like a human child, yelling with cold and terror as he left his mother’s womb. He had come to life little by little, on the high, three-legged bench. When his eyes had opened, they met the eyes of the broad-shouldered sculptor, watching them tenderly.
Le petit monstre n’était pas né comme un enfant des hommes, criant de froid et de terreur au sortir du ventre maternel. Il avait pris vie peu à peu, sur la haute selle à trois pieds, et quand ses yeux s’étaient ouverts, ils avaient rencontré ceux du sculpteur aux larges épaules, qui le regardaient tendrement.
We're delighted to welcome Nat Paterson to the blog, to tell us more about his translation of Léopold Chauveau's story 'The Little Monster'/ 'Le Petit Monstre', which appears in our April 2024 issue.
For a long time now you’ve put on the shirt of the walls,/just as others might put on a shroud.
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