Tuesday Poem: ‘Basil’ by Alex Pruteanu

He was so old
his bones seemed to float
inside his skin
I went to feel his pulse

he slapped at me and so
instead, I rolled the dice for him
on the backgammon board
and lit his pipe
He sprayed perfume on his palm
and ran it through his hair
How many pigs I slaughtered
in this yard, he said
How many?
While you hid inside the back room
and plugged your ears from the screaming.
How many?
Mis manos
abren las cortinas de tu ser
Octavio Paz
snuck out from around his pipe
through clenched teeth
Under old trees
men lie down again, again

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This poem first appeared at THRUSH Poetry Journal.  I came across it and immediately contacted Alex and the editors of THRUSH to see if I could place it here at Glow Worm. It deserves several readings.

Since emigrating to the United States from Romania in 1980 Alex Pruteanu has worked as a day laborer, a film projectionist, a music store clerk, a journalist/news writer, a TV Director, and a freelance writer. Currently he is an editor at NC State University. Alex has published fiction in Guernica Magazine, PANK Magazine, Camroc Press Review, Specter Literary Magazine, Connotation Press, and others. He is author of novella Short Lean Cuts, (Amazon Publishing) available as an e-book at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and in paperback at Amazon. 

Another of Alex’s works was just featured at the Aotearoa Affair’s latest blog carnival, FLASH ACROSS BORDERS. 

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For more Tuesday Poems, go here.