Editor’s Note: To keep things lively, I’ll be inviting poets to guest-edit HoboEye’s poetry section from time to time. For this issue, Michael Earl Craig has chosen a series of poems. Many thanks to him for bringing new voices to the mix.
– Mitchell McInnis, HoboEye Literary Editor

HoboEye Poetry:
Andrei Sen-Senkov, Moscow
(translated by Zachary Schomburg)

THE SHADOWS

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marlene dietrich removes her teeth to appear more aristocratic. shadows on her face are the same as on her neck if her neck grew teeth.

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in one of ingmar bergman’s films, a shadow of stairs is cast on a face. there is a smile. sweden’s thin grey lips falling all over the body of finland.

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in the past 50 years of japanese cinema special roles were given to actors to play shadows. these actors were in the credits along with the regular actors. when the streets were foggy no one knew the shadow actors were there. kurosawa once called them the reverse side of the sun.

THE WINTERS

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a russian girl lived in cuba for many years. in her third year, she got pregnant. in her third year, she covered all of her walls with posters of snow-covered trees, penguins, frozen lakes, polar bears. there is no winter in cuba. the cold glass jaw eternally bites the unborn children of russian women.

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on the table is some fake snow that only knows itself when it is next to a melting snowflake. it is ice cream for the stupid snowman. a pooch named snowball.

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animal rights activists throw red paint on fur coats then violently tear them off of the women who wear them. the skinned women then flail about inside the cold flaying house of the television.

30TH ANNUAL MOSCOW INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

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the german film has a beautiful title: the moon and other lovers. the heroine is blind from birth. she asks her lovers to tell her about the moon. each one tells about it differently. one compared the moon to east germany and the sun to west germany. one told her, you are not blind, this is just a lunar eclipse. and one just stayed silent. he was an american. his last name was moon. this was not a happy ending.

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the canadian film continental has a subtitle: a film without guns. it is very chekhovian. everything appears and then quickly disappears. even the audience disappears. at the end, a soviet champagne bottle is shot into death.

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in the american film ballast one of the twin boys commits suicide. the other twin soon tries to follow that same path. but he is saved. the surviving twin tries to live his life for both of them. he begins to watch two televisions. he sleeps with two women. he drinks two cups of coffee every morning. he almost accidentally kills himself in the same way his twin brother killed himself. his twin brother’s suicide happened on september 11. they called themselves the twin towers.



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