Claudia Serea

.
.

The guards

Abandon all hope,
Ye Who Enter Here.
—Dante Alighieri


The first guard

Here,
you’re worth

less
than dirt.

You’re worth-
less

than
a worm.

Give up
hope

to make it out
alive.



The second guard

I’ll crush you–
smash–
crash–
hit you

until
you piss
blood,

until you’re sorry                                                                           
you were born.

My dog
will drink
your bones.

The third guard

You only have
the right to work.

You only have
the right to die.

See that fence?

Walk toward it
and I’ll shoot.

Stumble
for a watermelon rind

in the roadside
garbage.

Do it.

Make me
do it.




The leeches

The guards
have boots,

but prisoners
have sweet
lean feet.

We lunch
on them

and multiply.

They taste salty
and warm,

still alive.


The fourth guard

I do my job,
then go home
to my children.

Daddy,
what did you
do today?

I helped
someone
die.

Someone
who didn’t
deserve
to live.

Daddy, do we
deserve
to live?

Shut up.

And eat.




The dragonfly

From above,
everything looks

orderly
and neat.

Guarded by men
with dogs,

the rows
of bent backs

move
hills of dirt

from one place
to another.

The sun
glitters

on my helicopter
wings.



Bio:
Claudia Serea is a Romanian-born poet who immigrated to the U.S. in 1995. Her poems and translations have appeared in 5 a.m., Meridian, Harpur Palate, Word Riot, Blood Orange Review, Cutthroat, Green Mountains Review, and many others. She was nominated two times for the 2011 Pushcart Prize and for 2011 Best of the Net. She is the author of To Part Is to Die a Little (Červená Barva Press), Angels & Beasts (Phoenicia Publishing, Canada), and A Dirt Road Hangs from the Sky (8th House Publishing, Canada). She also published the chapbooks Eternity’s Orthography (Finishing Line Press, 2007) and With the Strike of a Match (White Knuckles Press, 2011). She co-edited and co-translated The Vanishing Point That Whistles, an Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Poetry (Talisman Publishing, 2011). 

(author retains copyright)