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Best of Irish Poetry 2010
Editor: Matthew Sweeney

Songs of Earth and Light
Barbara Korun poems translated by Theo Dorgan

Done Dating DJs
by Jennifer Minniti-Shippey
Winner, 2008 Fool for Poetry Competition

Richesses: Francophone Songwriter Poets
Edited and translated by Aidan Hayes

Munster Literature Centre

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KRISTINE ONG MUSLIM

Kristine Ong Muslim has been published in numerous publications worldwide, including Beeswax Magazine, Boxcar Poetry Review, Fifth Wednesday, GlassFire Magazine, Grasslimb, Iodine Poetry Journal, Narrative Magazine, Ottawa Arts Review, Pank, Riddle Fence, The Pedestal Magazine and T-Zero. She has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and twice for the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Rhysling Award.

Songs of Dead Objects Content in their Husks

Bed

I summon your bodies

to be parallel with the earth

in preparation for death. I harden

gently while you surrender.

Bowl

I am a primeval mouth, a forsaken

hemisphere. I swallow and let every

thing gravitate to my lowest point,

compensate for my unformed orb.

Calendar

Prodigal leaves scrunched in place,

I count while you bend backwards,

recite while you stammer,

remind you of what you try to forget.

Carpet

Mine—the texture of silence. Glass ravens

tinkle on the display shelves. Burdened by

heavy wings, they do not tumble down.

I still wait for that perfect moment, their fall.

Doorknob

I yield to the gloss of rain, the scent

of thumbprints on metal, the pulse

of a sudden grip, the rush

of a panicked flight, the will to escape.

Glass Paperweight

Scoop me up—I can be your eye, your pearl

of bleached sun. I expand beyond your

line of sight, into a quadrant where

aesthetics is rude or even redundant.

Paper

Wield me weightless away from

the fire. Ink dirties me while it makes

me last. Your hand crumples me

into a ball, rustles me to submission.

Sink

Swirl with us into the drain. We are

disciples of scum, vestigial ashes

of an annotated sacrament.

Slurp our miracles with distaste.

©2009 Kristine Ong Muslim

Author Links

Kristine Ong Muslim Home Page

Kristine Ong Muslim Blog

'Remembering Alden', poem at Underground Voices

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