Hood
Wrapped up in your own story
And given how she gets around,
Talking so much for the first time
Now here as they say begins
The reprisal of a weak force:
The father of the house, rust v.
Wheel, Mommy’s little darling
Busily plays the baker.
This is how windshields
Are made and here we are
On our way. Which
is
fair. So
Bear it. And if we
have an idol,
A model, a road to follow,
Know that the accumulated weight
Could convert to their hoods
And pretty neighbors from their hooks
And eyes. I
remember
it well. But
What a memory!
Another hypostasis
Effected in the road between
The woman and the table when my eyes
Closed, when the apples and peaches
Were put in taxis and there was only
The next franchise
To flag (hedonist or not).
Oh, the nudes. Or
covers and
Coverings shook out
Because a whistling
Whim won’t cut the mustard.
The France Issue
Summer 2010
Poems
Chet Wiener
Chet Wiener writes poetry in English and French. He is the author of a book of poems in French (Devant l’abondance, Paris: P.O.L 2003) and the chapbook WalkDontWalk (Elmwood, Connecticut: Potes and Poets, 1999). He has translated Félix Guattari, Pierre Alferi, and others into English, co-edited, with Stacy Doris, the collection of translations Christophe Tarkos: Ma Langue est Poétique (New York: Roof Books, 2000), and his poems, translations and essays appear in publications in the United States and France.
English translation by Geneva Chao
Geneva
Chao has translated the poems
of Chet Wiener, Robert Creeley, Christophe
Tarkos, Sabine Macher, Philippe Jaccottet, and
Yves DiManno.