.
The
guards
Abandon all hope,
Ye Who Enter Here.
—Dante Alighieri
The first guard
Here,
you’re worth
less
than dirt.
You’re worth-
less
than
a worm.
Give up
hope
to make it out
alive.
The second guard
I’ll crush you–
smash–
crash–
hit you
until
you piss
blood,
until you’re
sorry
you were born.
My dog
will drink
your bones.
The third guard
You only have
the right to work.
You only have
the right to die.
See that fence?
Walk toward it
and I’ll shoot.
Stumble
for a watermelon rind
in the roadside
garbage.
Do it.
Make me
do it.
The leeches
The guards
have boots,
but prisoners
have sweet
lean feet.
We lunch
on them
and multiply.
They taste salty
and warm,
still alive.
The fourth guard
I do my job,
then go home
to my children.
Daddy,
what did you
do today?
I helped
someone
die.
Someone
who didn’t
deserve
to live.
Daddy, do we
deserve
to live?
Shut up.
And eat.
The dragonfly
From above,
everything looks
orderly
and neat.
Guarded by men
with dogs,
the rows
of bent backs
move
hills of dirt
from one place
to another.
The sun
glitters
on my helicopter
wings.Bio:
Claudia Serea is a Romanian-born poet who immigrated to the U.S. in 1995. Her poems and translations have appeared in 5 a.m., Meridian, Harpur Palate, Word Riot, Blood Orange Review, Cutthroat, Green Mountains Review, and many others. She was nominated two times for the 2011 Pushcart Prize and for 2011 Best of the Net. She is the author of To Part Is to Die a Little (Červená Barva Press), Angels & Beasts (Phoenicia Publishing, Canada), and A Dirt Road Hangs from the Sky (8th House Publishing, Canada). She also published the chapbooks Eternity’s Orthography (Finishing Line Press, 2007) and With the Strike of a Match (White Knuckles Press, 2011). She co-edited and co-translated The Vanishing Point That Whistles, an Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Poetry (Talisman Publishing, 2011).
(author retains copyright)
