I stretch to the out of reach
escaped cockatiel, to where it perches
in the lift shaft, preening on a grate,
chatting and blinking at the millet
as I offer it. A pair of doves
brood in an invasive ailanthus
before wind shakes eggs from
their scrappy nest, splattering them
on concrete below. Pigeon cooing
echoes in the vents. The janitor’s
hens are clucking and scratching
their narrow courtyard paving.
I open my palm like St Kevin,
noting a blackbird roosting call
descending from the next door
apartment building roof. Let
this hand become a still nest,
this arm fixed as the overhead
crossbeam, that my head may
become light as the city smog.
Let the rumbling-by number 9
rock me to sleep, the nearby
maternity ward open windows
cleanse my ears. Sculpt me
marble shoulders broad enough
to bear Atlas’s tympanum – or
let me lift off from the restless
road I was born on, like Icarus.

Andrew Fentham has published two poetry pamphlets: Hunglish (Broken Sleep, 2019) and Romanesco (Eyewear, 2017). His visual poetry has been exhibited in the UK and France. His translations from contemporary Hungarian poets have appeared widely in magazines and been awarded a Stephen Spender prize (2nd place, 2017).

 

A liftaknában próbálom befogni
az elszökött nimfapapagájt, nem érem el,
ül a rácson, néz és csipog, pislog,
tollászkodik, hiába csalogatom kölessel.
Az ecetfán gerlepár kotlik,
de a szedett-vedett galyfészekből
egy széllökés a tojásokat kisodorja,
szétloccsannak a mélyben.
Galambok turbékolnak a lichthofban,
és a szűk, lebetonozott udvaron
kapirgálnak a házmester tyúkjai.
A szomszéd bérház tetején
egy rigó nászdalba kezd, és mint
Szent Kevin, kitárom a tenyeremet,
fészkeljen bele, legyen a karom merev,
mint a mestergerenda, fejem könnyű,
mint a szmog, a 9-es busz morajlása
ringasson, a szülészet nyitott ablakán
kiáradó sírás mossa tisztára fülemet,
faragott izmokkal márvány testem
tartson családi fészkében nemzedékeket,
mint Atlasz a timpanont a nyughatatlan,
dübörgő utca felett, ahol felnőttem –
itt bontogattam szárnyaimat, szavaimat.

András Gerevich has published five collections of poetry in Hungarian and translated English-language poets into Hungarian including John Ashbery and Frank O'Hara. He has taught Creative Writing, and Screenwriting, at Vassar College and Budapest Metropolitan University. A former president of the József Attila Kör, he edited the literary journals Kalligram and Chroma. A number of his films have appeared at festivals.

View David Joel Kitcher’s selected works.