Driving with LLL Louise Landes Levi from Amsterdam up to Riva San Vitale in the Alps to visit Franco’s place at the Franco Beltrametti foundation:
between two places
summer is one of them
Cralan Kelder was born in 1970, growing up in California and the Netherlands. Publications include: Big Deal Rimbaud (smallMinded 2011), Give Some Word(Shearsman 2010), City Boy (Longhouse 2007), and Lemon Red (Coracle 2005). He lives in Amsterdam with the evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers and their children.
SARA RYAN
When the whales wash up on shore, my friend grieves. I feel it too, but it feels further away. Deep in me, treading water, legs furiously churning under the surface. The first whale washes up on the oceanfront, just off the boardwalk. People drive out to stare at it. Its dark wet form deflates into the sand.
MONIKA CASSEL
In ’87 I see guardsmen walk their AK-47s / on the platforms. The trains slow down but never stop. I think, / my mother was born in such a different Germany, but this is true for everyone / —so why can’t I stop looking?
VIJAYALAKSHMI
There is fire everywhere, / both inside and outside. / Unaware of the intensity of the fire, / they maintain silence / like the serenity of a corpse. / From the burning fire / bursts out a waterfall tainted in red. / All over the shores have bloomed / the flaming lilies of motherhood.
Don’t miss an issue! Subscribe to The Common.