On the rooftops of Cairo under satellite dishesthat stand there like ossified planets goats erode their own orbits.Instead of ellipses—zigzags through refuse and debris,from concrete apartments to ornate domes of medieval mosques,from top floor additions, laundry out drying,to houses left in ruins after the earthquake passed, from this roof where I watch to othersbustling with …
He was all of them:the girl climbing over the wall,the somber man bent forward getting wet on a bench,not looking for shelter,the Greek woman in ripped apron lifting a washing paddle above her head like Hercules does his club.He was them but from a close remove, roaming, watching, patient, fast, unassuming, and unabashed.In a Lisbon …
translated by mira rosenthal You say: I have to go to Etna to pay farewell to my mother.We take the winding way where tourist jeeps go through the slag heaps of gray, black, bluish lava, you collect pebbles along the shoulderas if discovering traces of her.I dreamed of just such a landscape:she was working her …