Volume 1, Issue 3 & 4 - Diverse Voices Quarterly

EMPTINESS…
Emptiness, consisting of spring and me,
is called into the house:
no one behind the window—let us turn off the light;
it is unimportant here.
With closed eyes looking into the dark,
I find, collated with the dream,
polytheism in the now forgotten wall—
hard like bone.
Few people—elbowroom.
I’ll call it, like myself;
the many gods create a house,
a frame for the soul.
Walking to myself along the muddy road,
into the quiet city,
this spring has taught me—
my home is a kind of victory.
—Aleksey Porvin, translated by Peter Golub
A WHITE PAUSE
The shaft
of sunlight,
which lay across
your sleeping face,
looked cool
as if a white washcloth
had been placed there
to calm a fever.
I almost had to cross
the room and
rest my hand in it.
—Corey Mesler
Diverse Voices Quarterly, Vol. 1, Issue 3 & 4 33