Aaron Poochigian


 

A Memory, Perhaps

Light rain; an ultra-modern train
lisping through European woods.
Beyond the spattered window pane
gypsies are camping near the tracks—
their clothes as dark as oaks, their hoods
burlap. One brings a silent axe

down on a birch branch, down again;
another cooking at a fire
rips feathers from a headless hen;
the rest, though, have assembled round
a bearded bard, a one-man choir,
chanting an epic, without sound. . .

mushrooms have sprouted from the log
his closest fans are sitting on;
a child is crying; a rangy dog
is head-down licking chicken scraps.
Then tunnel darkness: they have gone
back into memory, perhaps.


Aaron Poochigian earned a PhD in Classics from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. His book of translations from Sappho, Stung With Love, was published by Penguin Classics in 2009, and his translation of Apollonius’ Jason and the Argonauts was released October 2014. His first book of original poetry, The Cosmic Purr (Able Muse Press) was published in 2012, and his thriller in verse, Mr. Either/Or, will come out with Etruscan Press in Fall of 2017. His work has appeared in such journals as The Guardian, Poems Out Loud and POETRY. More at: aaronpoochigian.com.