The Brooklyn Rail

APRIL 2020

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APRIL 2020 Issue
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A chessboard drawn by the child Kuba

arranged and thought by Erín Moure, from yadvashem.org
(it ends with a k as, if poems can be pictures, this is the figure of a human walking…)

If saying this
makes it “marred” or
it is
subject to copyright

or ejected

warped faction
my words or there is

no new
arrangement

no destiny

do not alter
do not remove

under a pigsty
in darkness
a chessboard
in a notebook
one leaf of paper
under a pigsty
darkness
breadcrumbs for pieces
the child Kuba
of Bóbrka
plays
chess with Lipa his twin
sad I am for you
stupid country
if saying it
makes for

less lonely or
souvenirs dissouts

a membrane is
earth’
s skin above or

under the pigsty
light
once a week
after Shabbat
one lit candle

Draw the furniture in our house!
said his mother Sara
And into the notebook
goes the furniture
Draw the horse in the road!
said Sara his mother
and into the notebook
goes the horse and road

its harness gleams
its hide brushed in
pencil
repeated small
agonies grey with
reason

do I speak or do
or simply
shelter

take shelter

or
endeavour
below the pigs
the chessboard
drawn and x-hatched
every 2nd
square a threshed
field
the child Kuba
later Jack
old
his chessboard
in darkness
no room to stand
beneath the pigs
Lipa Celia Sara Leon
Kuba
sad I am for you
stupid category
if saying
makes if for

less lonely or
for memory’s shouts

earth’s loam
is that a
treasure

oh yes it is
under the pigs
of farmer Tkacz
Ernsdorf
in darkness
edge Bóbrka
1942
2 yrs later
April 1944
прибытие
Красная Армия
1 wk to open eyes
to daylight

2 וואָכן
to wal
k

Photo by the author.
Photo by the author.

Contributor

Erín Moure

Erín Moure’s most recent poetry is The Elements (Toronto: House of Anansi) and most recent translation is Uxío Novoneyra’s The Uplands: Book of the Courel and other poems (El Paso: Veliz Books) from Galician. She folds paper in Montreal.

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The Brooklyn Rail

APRIL 2020

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