Disclaimer: I don't pretend to be a great or expert poet, but this is a poem in the Golden Shovel format. This format was first used by Terrance Hayes in homage to Gwendolyn Brooks (strongly recommend that you check out Brooks' famous We Real Cool and Hayes' The Golden Shovel). The Golden Shovel format takes every word from a source poem and fits each word neatly to the end of a line, essentially creating an entirely new poem. A short example: If you read only the last words of each line of Hayes's poem The Golden Shovel, you inadvertently end up reading Brooks's source poem, We Real Cool.
Bugs (Source Poem)
by José Juan Tablada (1871-1945)
[trans. by Roberto Tejada]
Folded wings flung over
like a pilgrim's saddlebag:
flitter onward transient bug
Red-crowned crane
Counterfeit cranes lie limp and folded.
Real ones sing and spread their wings.
Their tongues are not tossed and flung,
flailing in familiar cafes over and over.
Their tongues are smooth on command, just like
all the rest. Not a
disgrace. Your crown is too pink, like a pilgrim's.
Not red. You sling on a saddlebag.
Maybe this is it. Your tongue sings, flitters
but suddenly your crown is red, too red. Go onward —
go back to your country — your flittering tongue is transient —
go back. Fly, fly, fly away bug.
YOU ARE READING
Compilation
Short StoryA compilation of my works, dated from 2018-2022. These pieces are not placed in order.
