Snippet of “Tick” running in Assaracus in the Fall. #literature #poetry #poem #art #gay
Snippet of my poem “Marsyas” which will run in Assaracus in the fall. #poetry #gay #literature #art #poem
Amityville horror.
The first time that picture was shown was on the Merv Griffin show back in 1979. It was discovered 3 years after it was taken. Gene Campbell, who was a professional photographer, was brought into the house in 1976 when the Warrens went in with their team. He set up an automatic camera on the 2nd floor landing that shot off infrared film, black and white, throughout the night. There are literally rolls of film with nothing on them. There’s only one picture of the little boy.
Love Amityville
(Source: opalmind)
What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum?
The barbarians are due here today.
Why isn’t anything happening in the senate?
Why do the senators sit there without legislating?
Because the barbarians are coming today.
What laws can the senators make now?
Once the barbarians are here, they’ll do the legislating.
Why did our emperor get up so early,
and why is he sitting at the city’s main gate
on his throne, in state, wearing the crown?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and the emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a scroll to give him,
replete with titles, with imposing names.
Why have our two consuls and praetors come out today
wearing their embroidered, their scarlet togas?
Why have they put on bracelets with so many amethysts,
and rings sparkling with magnificent emeralds?
Why are they carrying elegant canes
beautifully worked in silver and gold?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and things like that dazzle the barbarians.
Why don’t our distinguished orators come forward as usual
to make their speeches, say what they have to say?
Because the barbarians are coming today
and they’re bored by rhetoric and public speaking.
Why this sudden restlessness, this confusion?
(How serious people’s faces have become.)
Why are the streets and squares emptying so rapidly,
everyone going home so lost in thought?
Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.
And now, what’s going to happen to us without barbarians?
They were, those people, a kind of solution.
-Cavafy
—-
Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard
Stephen--
MFA American University '12 in Poetry /
Writing in Baltimore, MD
You can read my poetry in journals such as Prairie Schooner, Knockout, Bloom, Chelsea Station, and The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide. My poems have also been featured on websites such as Split This Rock and Lambda Literary.
Add me on Twitter: @stephnz
