Salman Toor, Fag Puddle with Candle, Shoe, and Flag (detail), 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, N.Y. Photo: Farzad Owrang.
Trains That Run on Time
In the beginning a few
said it didn’t matter.
Among hells they’d choose the Italian one:
practiced inefficiency, great food,
green lizards hanging
like little minotaurs on the walls.
The perfect rotors of maple seeds
lend the possibility of a forest
and there is a certain elegance
in possibility, like a chess match.
It had been noticed
the company she kept:
Jewish artists and intellectuals.
Certain “friends” mentioned their concern
for her health. It was certain
she could be saved. It was spring,
almond trees blooming, the pines of Rome
still towered over eternity.
Poetry
Parting at Changganby Li Bai
Translated from the Chinese by Rachel DeWoskin and Kenneth DeWoskin
Poetry

John Minczeski is a graduate of the Warren Wilson MFA Program. His collection of poetry, Gravity, was published by Texas Tech in 1991. (updated 2000)