Thursday, May 17, 2012

New Poetry by Aleksandr Smechov











DFW The Night Before The Morning He Hangs Himself

Finishing his prandial grub,
Wallace lays recumbent
on his saffron divan.
A minutia fly gives a sort of like
meddling look,
like “what are You planning in that sinuous head,
Wallace ol’ boy?”
He stares at the curlicues bifurcating on the ceiling,
merging and convolving and abdicating.
Him thinking,
that’s how my life’s been.
And then thinking like that last thought was a tad bromidic, no?
A Big Red tonic, empty, standing on his magenta lacquered bureau
reverberates the sharp sun rays that break through
the off-white venetian blinds.
Wallace, supine for like two hours by this time,
ruminates on infamous penultimate and ultimate
Last Words.
“See you tomorrow,” and then
“I love you.”
Some African parrot the night before the morning the grief-spasmed owner found it
supine on its back.
The fly’s landed in the jamb of the
open-just-enough-for-a-bit-of-oxygen window.
it dances a sort of Greek dance,
a sort of Kalamatiano,
Wallace figures.
He recalls the Ambrose story, with the Confederate.
The soda bottle’s not reflecting the rays anymore, and the fly
has eloped and Wallace
is alone.
A skullcap is what he would don,
if he had to choose what his personal hat would be,
and not because it matches his quiddity or anything like that,
just that it feels right.


Aleksandr Smechov 2012




Frederick the First was a rock

I found him one grey day
While climbing the Vilnius pines;
From a gaunt bough I spotted him,
Lying there, insolent and haughty, like
He owned the damn meadow.
I Don’t Think So, I though, and
Took him home,
Washed him,
Even gave him a nice spot by the window.

I figured he’d be lonely there, so sometimes
I took him with me.
We rolled down mountains,
Climbed mammoth trees,
Braved mud pits with our bare feet.

One day I threw him off a hill, and
When I rolled down he wasn’t there. Grandma and I
Searched for hours.
We looked every day,
but Frederick I was lost.

How easy it is to kill a king
When he’s not in his palace.

Fredrick II was a giant cockroach.
He lived under the bathroom’s washing machine,
In his moist castle.
I tried to assassinate him many times,
But I always failed;
He was too fast, too lean, too small to get caught.
One day my mom screamed.
Fredrick II was in the bathtub.
I turned on the steaming water
And he washed down
His watery tomb.

How easy it is to kill a king
When he’s not in his palace.


Aleksandr Smechov 2012


Aleksandr was born in Belarus, moved to Lithuania for a year and then immigrated to the United States. He has lived in the Bronx ever since, going back to Lithuania several times. He attends Baruch College where he majors in journalism. He plans to become an investigative journalist, but what he truly wants to do is write fiction. His favorite author (for now) is David Foster Wallace. He is also a Borges junkie. Taking a class with poet Laurie Sheck was what really improved and galvanized his poetry. He is 20 years old.

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