Sphinx, Karolina Pavlova

Sphinx

OH! Sphinx of Oedipus. He - is a pilgrim.

Now lying in wait on the Path of Life,

Where implacably one must look him in the eye

Though he will allow none to pass beyond.

As it was before, he appears to us now:

The Pernicious Sphinx of Life to the Children

of the Old Times - with but one question

And its threat; half a beauty and half of a beast.

And those among us, believing in themselves

In vain, who do not solve his fateful riddle -

Who fail in spirit - will find not the young

Goddess’s mouth, but the claws of the Beast.

And while the path is encircled with human

Blood, and the land is dotted with bones…

Already, filled with their cryptic love, the

New generations quest to the Sphinx, anew.

1831

translated by Joshua Walker, 2018

October

The bones - have all - been picked -

And graces - strained through the wood

What is left - from the time before -

Like the nit - stuck

Below the wool of the sleeve

edges cannot break

The edges of consciousness
thwart
the days you pass in vain

With a brain on ice

And eye stuffed with tinningsbrook

With a mind like that

Oh, what could be

- what they could

Be instead

June

Just sunshine burns

To the back of your teeth and through -

Just daylight cracks from

Eyes wrenching eyes wrenching beyond -

Or else just these wings

In gossamer of pollen

Will straighten the clench of your jaw

- or through the mere trick of light

Now sleep in the stick of warm

No / Sunshine

Because nothing can be perfect

Let the skin come off instead

For all the checks and focused breath

The rain falls - as it always would

Houses divided

How can it all add up

If they don't believe in numbers

Just

Working the symbols

They Divine again and again

Between the words they take on

Or

Reducing the fractions

To the nil

And what comes beyond

In Passing

There is no handle

On the handleless

No grip to catch the light

As shade detracts and

Takes the color, too

Dreams in the Heat

Where does the Acid

Not wash away

The faces of all dusty day


Maybe to pry the

Slits from the Meat

Maybe to sleep through the night

No grips / anymore

You can't get a handle  

In what only slips  

Not count  

The pieces that stack  

Try then to bear

The wind in all things  

That burn you  

Apart in due course  

Springtime 3

Keep the doors closed

So they can't see you breath

Shallower shallower

Or

Maybe not at all

Springtime 2

If it all comes apart

then

It all comes apart



We welcome the nerves to

come



Scratching out days

in

The dust and the

shade



When sleep only comes

after noon

Springtime

just like drowning

only faster



just like slipping

only quicker



the ice at your knees

brace the sand at your neck



and noone can see

down the well

Handles

Nothing can hold

Stars moon sun rain

It only seems like that

Because you

Haven't seen this before

February

the rocks are slippery

when you do not climb

the fish are silent

wherever you swim


you can't find the handle

on the balls in play

when the noise multiplies

out of the field

Ground, Away

Safe is safe, wrist bands and all, but

Today

Why not lean in to the static

And feel the charge, away from the earth

Staying grounded works for most of the time

Passing shocks from whence they once came

But

Sometimes you want to sail, to burn

Your skull through the sweat of the day

Nothing beyond the jolt

Resets the tick of the bones

Because breathing can only happen

As one

Stacking

The bricks keep piling up

Against all your best judgements

Maybe they leave

The way to the sky

Break the roof and heavens as one

JAN

It's all still here -

somehow -

all of it


the streets and the birds and the sleet


Maybe the days

will keep draining themselves away


Maybe we won't notice when

It comes apart

Choices

The chemical peel

Tastes good

A dab of the tongue

On the face

Maybe this hand

Can grope the distance

Of the shade you would

Imbibe after all

One Day Only

Why not buy if it's on sale

Why not kiss when lips are spread

The plastics will only lose their luster

The metals, the sheen of their head

Doesn't matter who you worked for now

As long as they question you not

For the boys are all still watching you

Mortgage the reindeer - to buy up the sleigh

Inauguration Day

Whatever you save

Someone will use

The markets never

Shrug - off their weight

They smoke gallons of tar

You would save in a jar

For to its ruin

All will stack - despite you

January

No - last minute heroics

No - sunset when the work day is done

These are the leaves

That would meet you regardless

The decay of what only was won

Plaster

It doesn't hurt the first day

Only the second and third

It's raw without the rubbing

And with the rubbing, worse

Maybe I'll find space inside

To sleep away the scabs

Or maybe I'll dream

And heal the skein

With my illusions intact

After Christmas sale

This perfumed air

Will kill my brain

Nerves to dumb

Twitching bundles

Or maybe I'll never

Breathe again

Drive the blood

To the depths below

16

Summer is unbearable

The places to go

The beaches to see

The advices of how to drive and be

And all you haven't done

Give me winter instead

Braced behind the panes of glass

Or outside for a bellyful of air

Among the dead and desolate

Where the snow reaches the branch

You can stay awake forever

And you

Don't have to do a thing

Jetlag

We touched

, afraid of skin

We kissed , with lips

Akimbo

The awkward glance

Cast back around

Stings deep ,

When

Left on its own