Two Poems

by Jeffrey Burghauser (March 2019)

Man Walking, Paul Gavarni, 1852-66

An Angel, A Snake

Where the pavery recedes,

Soil’s naked as a nerve.

I walk there, amid my needs,

Causing Earth herself to rave.

What to waive, and what to crave,

Being neither, being both?

Eat like an angel, and starve;

Like a snake, and choke to death.

Ovidiu în exil, Ion Theodorescu-Sion, 1915

Ovid

No two throes within my life align;

Not even my nemesis is mine.

Having scanned the hall in proud review,

I said, “Dismissed.” But nobody withdrew.

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Jeffrey Burghauser is a teacher in Columbus, OH. He was educated at SUNY-Buffalo and the University of Leeds. He currently studies the five-string banjo with a focus on pre-WWII picking styles. A former artist-in-residence at the Arad Arts Project (Israel), his poems have appeared (or are forthcoming) in Appalachian Journal, Fearsome Critters, Iceview, Lehrhaus, and New English Review. Jeffrey’s book-length collection, Real Poems, is available on Amazon and his website is www.jeffreyburghauser.com.

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