The Corpse presents the first ever English translation of the Algerian poet Nabile Farès, an excerpt from the remarkable bilingual text, Escuchando tu Historia. English translation by Peter Thompson.

Your cultural operating system has fatal flaws....

taming the flame
sacred
are simple gestures

How I break my head against checkered tile

I love on your kitchen floor

Solitude:
   
1.    The state or quality of being alone
2.    A lonely or secluded place

But then, to earn his real keep and sustain
the poetry by which he really lived, he had
to be polite about poems written by losers

As you become your friends your furniture must become you,
stand for the real you, and something on each shelf
and wall so the friends feel friendliness.

There’s a Ghost in my head, although
I don’t know his name. He tells me

Gas is $4.09 per gallon. Aromatic cedar mulch is $3.49 per 2 cubic foot bag. A flight to Paris is beyond my means.

“Never bring the Lord an animal that
is blind, has broken bones, cuts, warts, scabs,
or ringworm. Never give the Lord any of these in
a sacrifice by fire on the altar."
—LEVITICUS 22:22

 

Ars Memoriae

to experience a thrill zone or a patina

approaching rembrandt

the mnemonist

takes a truncheon for a hat

Who took us into a lower east side squat
Who took us into Steal This Radio
where Bernadette played whale songs