Barbara Ellmerer

Barbara Ellmerer

Unpeel the imminent skin,
fissure the smooth beginning with
the knowledge of brows
that will pucker in disbelief,
this is not the face we knew,
this ravaged circuitry is another
way of acknowledging defeat,
who exposed it to our
eyes?

Sampurna Chattarji

the livid angel who sings violet songs of praise,
there is no other warning except the one inside your chest,
open and you shall see, warm, good-looking,
the season of seasons,
every whiff of narrowness gone, bold, bolder still,
the cher ami from foreign songs,
this foreign body inside my eye blinds me,
like a tubular rose, rising towards the sun.

Sampurna Chattarji

foam on the lips of the sea,
cappuccino foam, foam that is home to horses,
the glandular hand, joints like wires, like sails,
each tiny door in your morning, good,
like the truth of teeth, smiling,
each tool we use to fix the way the day turns,
tightening every screw.

Sampurna Chattarji

Barbara Ellmerer

René Descartes  ( 1596-1650), Principia Philosophia ( Amsterdam: Ludovicus Elzevirius, 1650), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Alte Drucke und Rara, FF 91, p. 129

(more…)