DOGLEG (2016)

About the author

Jimmy (Shkëlqim) Cela was born in Tirana, Albania and now resides in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He graduated at the University of Georgia, where he earned a Ph.D. and a M.S. degree. He works as statistician and also has authored several literary books in prose and poetry in Albanian. Recently he won the prestigious prize “Kadare 2016” for his collection of novels Embryology. 

Excerpts from the book

How unlikely

Confused an aged wine drank another world

and a convex fear swelled and unfolded

an inhaling mirror, condensing the rays

showing how small the bud of life was,

how unlikely the island in seas,

this globe in the void of infinities,

how unlikely getting to know

the beautiful people, lost in plateaus

forgotten by mountains forgotten by skies

busy with Nothing, how unlikely

all the past loves, planted like field mines,

missed by stepping drunkards with luck.

Counted down

The oracle said you’ll love four men,

And I know one, he’s your father,

I know the other, the inevitable,

You’re coming closer, it is all possible,

But still and despite, I can’t rejoice being

A monotonic decreasing number.

Retro

Our plum turned off its lights one by one,

While distant gardens of unknown trees and homecoming moons glowed.

My three birches knew meanwhile: She was dying slowly,

That is, a wee bit faster than “we”.

We had to learn worth-live the until

And stretch it endlessly,

Chew the gum of life until stale and tasteless,

During the betweens,

Between the amongs,

Amongst growing cravings in the dusk for “we”,

That bitter-sweet crystal of intimacy.

Women resembling you pass by

With the braid like a rope on their backs

And I get sentenced again and again

To hanging on pillars of strange women.