Anton Yakovlev
CHICKEN
Like any other day, the country was troubled,
flapping its upside-down flags from the shotgun poles.
We needed to test how much we meant to each other
and drove each other off the cliff. The corpse
we landed on didn't smell yet, which was bizarre,
as it had lain there for at least two hundred
years, and even longer according to some.
Windshield wipers waved relentlessly,
and beauty never came to the rescue.
Years later, the dog keeps whistling.
Who won? Unrequited rhetorical
questions provide their own orgasm.
EUROPEAN HISTORY IN SYMBOLS
Guillotine here
guillotine there
and there
and there
and there
and here
and here
and here
and
Anton Yakovlev's latest chapbook Chronos Dines Alone, winner of the James Tate Poetry Prize 2018, was published by SurVision Books. He is also the author of Ordinary Impalers (Kelsay Books, 2017) and two prior chapbooks. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Hopkins Review, Measure, Amarillo Bay, and elsewhere. The Last Poet of the Village, a book of translations of poetry by Sergei Yesenin, is forthcoming from Sensitive Skin Books.
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CHICKEN
Like any other day, the country was troubled,
flapping its upside-down flags from the shotgun poles.
We needed to test how much we meant to each other
and drove each other off the cliff. The corpse
we landed on didn't smell yet, which was bizarre,
as it had lain there for at least two hundred
years, and even longer according to some.
Windshield wipers waved relentlessly,
and beauty never came to the rescue.
Years later, the dog keeps whistling.
Who won? Unrequited rhetorical
questions provide their own orgasm.
SINCE HIS SUICIDE
You said we were all better off I couldn’t recall
his eyes My cheapest rental
up the gravel road Hanging
by fire forever I saw him in skeleton sweat
Noose on his neck Tourists gathered
screaming reviews He used to bark to himself
Flooded the streets Now you told me
we all missed him too much Your sunglasses gleamed
Fire under the door His body shaking
EUROPEAN HISTORY IN SYMBOLS
Guillotine here
guillotine there
and there
and there
and there
and here
and here
and here
and
Anton Yakovlev's latest chapbook Chronos Dines Alone, winner of the James Tate Poetry Prize 2018, was published by SurVision Books. He is also the author of Ordinary Impalers (Kelsay Books, 2017) and two prior chapbooks. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Hopkins Review, Measure, Amarillo Bay, and elsewhere. The Last Poet of the Village, a book of translations of poetry by Sergei Yesenin, is forthcoming from Sensitive Skin Books.