Immigrant Reactors

inside my elbow a raised lump shows —

oh, two more — they might be poison ivy

though where’ve I been? nowhere it grows

unless the cat went, deep in the shrubbery

two lots down where, I suspect, she caught

the bluebird she brought home to flaunt

called me out to admire & praise, who wouldn’t?

such blue & full grown, possible parent

to young flyers that touch & go the lawn

I puncture the proud lump — clear bleed

conjured by ever alert anti-allergens —

I bandage to contain whatever compounds

might spread to the rest of me, immigrant

reactors my body doesn’t want or need

How I Became a Dog

by Vladimir Mayakovsky

It’s all

Too much to bear!

Gnawed to the bone by bitter anger,

I rage, but not like all the rest of you,

I rage, as a dog bays at the barefaced moon:

I almost feel

Like howling at everything that moves.

So it must be my nerves

So I go out

And take a walk

But it isn’t any better outside

Where nobody can make me hold my peace.

An old woman bids me good evening.

I’ve got to say something: she’s someone whom I know.

I’d like to. I feel like saying . . .

But cannot do so in human fashion.

What in hell’s name is going on?

I’d like to hope it’s all a dream.

I pinch myself, but it’s no good,

I’m just the same as ever, the self I am used to.

I feel myself, my lips,

But protruding between my lips

I feel a fang.

I quickly hide my face

As if I’m going to blow my nose,

and rush back home with giant strides,

carefully edging past the police station,

When suddenly I hear:

“Hey, officer, hey look!

A tail! He’s got a tail!”

I feel it and am rooted to the spot.

More blatant than all my canine teeth,

I never noticed it as I ran home.

The enormous tail of a dog

Is waving behind my back,

Protruding from beneath my jacket.

So what can I do now?

Someone shouted, summoning a crowd.

First a second came, and then a third and fourth.

Elbowing the old woman aside.

She crossed herself

And screamed out: “He’s a devil!”

And then whisk-like whiskers bristled on my face,

With the crowd swelling

Over me huge

And bestially enraged,

I went down on all fours

and barked at them like this:

Row! Ruff! Rough!

— translated by Bernard Meares