"Unforgettable."
—Michael Ondaatje
These rhythmic poems negotiate the collisions between past, present, and future—and outline a universal mythology of the self. Exploring the overlapping arrangements of time and memory, life and death, Sikelianos skillfully draws lines from everyday minutiae towards an interior world where we are “carrying our own living ghost inside.”
"Comes to me"
the future comes to me
with a horrifying screech
then it comes to me softly
like a weeping cloud
and it comes to me like
a fish, glass-eyed, flopping
and it comes to erotically
meanly& sharp
it comes to me cashed out rolling
electronically
in my future life I was
a cowboy, killed
in a bar fight
a flamingo in snow
Eleni Sikelianos
is the author of six books of poetry, including
The California Poem
, a Barnes & Noble Best Book of the Year. She directs the Universityof Denver's Creative Writing program.