Marilyn Singer: April Is a Dog's Dream

april is a dog's dream

the soft grass is growing

the sweet breeze is blowing

the air all full of singing feels just right

so no excuses now

we're going to the park

to chase and charge and chew

and I will make you see

what spring is all about

Brian Bilston: An Awful Lot of Foolishness

On the first April the First
someone thought it might be funny

to balance a bucket of water on top of a door,

and see what happens.

As it turns out, it was funny - 

so much so that the following year,

the incident was not forgotten

and there developed a fashion

for the stretching of cellophane

across toilet seats, and the tying together

of shoelaces. A few years after that,

the fake dog turd was invented.

It wasn't long before everyone was at it.

Clever hoaxes were constructed

involving Martian landings

and left-handed toilet paper,

and each year the pranks

became ever more elaborate,

and might take months or years

or centuries in the planning -

genetically-modified spaghetti trees,

the creation of large-scale shifts

in weather patterns, the extinction

of the black rhinoceros -

until it seemed as if such tomfoolery

was what we lived with every day,

and that all the high jinks and the tricks

and the hoaxes were no longer

distinguishable from truth.

Well that escalated quickly, the people said,

slapping each other on the back

and laughing.

Tóth Krisztina: Somnivore

Szeretkezés alatt a téli utca
szemed mögött kigyúló lámpasor
és a járdát a fény befutja
állni egy ház előtt ahol

Nagy a hideg a kutyák se ugatnak
nézel a hóba fagyott pisifoltra
és próbálod a csikket beledobni
ha eltalálom most mi lenne hogyha

Elmondanám hogy nem bírlak szeretni
hogy sose bírtam senkit igazából
Ha most bemennék nem történne semmi
mert mindig ott egy utca ott a máshol

Hogy évek óta nem tudok aludni
ebben a testben senki kézzel
ha simogatja se tudja lehunyni
benti szemem a hóba néz fel

Ha becsöngetnék csak mert éppen arra
jártam leülnék semmi újság
Ha kinyitnám a szemem belehullna
a szemedből az összes szomorúság -

Sujata Bhatt: Love in a Bathtub

Years later we'll remember the bathtub,
the position

                 of the taps

the water, slippery

as if a bucketful

                 of eels had joined us...

we'll be old, our children grown up

but we'll remember the water

                            sloshing out

the useless soap,

the mountain of wet towels.

'Remember the bathtub in Belfast?'

we'll prod each other - 

Stanislaw Franczak: Lelkiismeret

mélyen
a szívem alatt érzek
egy szálkát ami
fáj
amikor ki akarták venni
az operáció alatt
kiderült hogy az
az én rossz lelkiismeretem

Rudy Francisco: To You

He puts guilt in the air and waits for you
to breathe, tries to tailor the blame until it

looks like it fits you, turns the story into a 

gymnast and convinces it to flip. He rewinds

the movie, excavates the plot, digs out your

patience, makes himself the narrator and the

hero. He sketches you as the antagonist and

suddenly his transgressions become deleted

scenes. He blames you for his sadness.

And this is how the wolf cries boy.

László Noémi: Félúton

Egyiket már,
másikat még tudom:
a dolgok közt
időzöm, félúton.
Hordom hiányuk
kényszerképzetét,
és nem emlékszem:
melyikük a tét.