Rika Lesser

I wanted both my parents to die
together   They did not oblige me

though they formed the parental unit
all my life   Now my mother has out-
lived it more than seven years, as my
eldest sister & I approach our
middle sister's second yahrzeit - or
it us - as days shorten, reds deepen
She knows us, Mother; when prompted re-
members Milton, Fran   How long would he
have survived the loss of her?   And her
losses?

Last week I may have saved my mother's
life - I owe her my own many times
over   An antibiotic she
is sensitive (read: allergic) to
was prescribed and fed to her once or
twice   (Think positive: Mithridates,
eating poisons, to build tolerance,
become immune)   I put an end to
that "mistake"   Dying now is not her
choice   Nor mine for her to make   I want
my mother to die in her sleep
                                              Where
would you have yours die?
                                              And by what
means?

Rika Lesser

I came in any case, how could I have stayed away?

The scent of lavender and jasmine. The wind - up here in the mountains the wind is always
             blowing - comes from the place behind the mountain of Hope where the sun just set
It's getting dark fast. Like a shadow you emerge from the twilight
I see your body has aged. The shawl over your shoulder gleams pale blue in the light of stars
             just lit
I am struggling to be nothing but body. Massive. Solid

You look at me.
I am the childish young man you loved, the middle-aged man you left and now also the one you
            look at like a stranger
Your attendants trail their particolored veils in my breast. I look around
             helplessly for the children

Then you take hold of my left hand with your right and set your right foot on my left foot
I am not Joachim and you are not Anna, but your rib cage heaves like hers and mine rises like his

Then you turn around, and then I do
Laughing you walk away from me. Your bare feet against the stones. The cicadas. The
             darkness. The lavender

I go. I stamp. I scream. I laugh
And your ladies depart my breast waving in their delightfully raw, high-heeled,
             satyrically reeling parade

Magnus William-Olsson
Translated from the Swedish by Rika Lesser