Travelers Welcome

Travelers Welcome

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Prague and Tongue

by Karina van Berkum

Like Tongue, the word
Prague is spelled
for its swollen center

and placement,
which snakes before
it stalls.

This winter I hid inside
both for a while
while the leadfaced

neighbors worked fast
on their own
obsessions. Alone,

I learned to be in love
with neither town
nor appendage

whose shining, wasted
forms ache against
one another:

Prague from Tongue
in a moment of silent
lunacy, say,

and Tongue sitting wet
in a gray station,
dying to go.

1 comment:

  1. Once again I find on Camel Saloon a very good poet whose work I'm not familiar with--but the name Karina van Berkum has a sound as interesting as Prague and Tongue. I don't think I'll forget it when I encounter the name again.

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