Definitely Not Lemmings #35

A warm welcome to N. G. Lykomitros who joins us from Athens, Greece. Nikos studied English Language and Literature and did graduate work in translation at the University of Athens; his first book of poems was published by Gavriilidis Editions ( Athens 2010) and translated into Spanish by a mutual friend, the Spanish poet and translator Mario Domínguez Parra.

For the Last Time, I'm Telling You All I Know

Say it was translated

Into intelligible speech,

This poet’s sibyllic

Song would still sound

Like no song ever

Heard before.

In Terrorem

Remember:

in

ter

min

able,

un

flinch

ing

err

or

un

er

ring

ly

true,

e

pluribus

unum

skull

and

bones,

red

white,

blue.

On Second Thoughts

This rock is so set

In its ways, it refuses

To budge an inch,

Even if you

Give it a mile.

Poet Milking Sacred Cow

Victual Reality, Or How American Poets Are Turning

The Poem Into Tripe

Merle’s

hag-

gard

old

sagging

cow

belly’s

gone

to

pot.

The photograph late April 1975, half-way through a coast-to-coast motoring trip from Seattle to Boston; the poem twenty-some years later—maybe our titillating poet should have thought twice before regurgitating it.

All for Naught?

Was what he was trying to say worth the effort,

Or was it simply a case of not assaying the worth

Of what he wanted to say?