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.

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