DAVID RADAVICH

IN A WAITING ROOM

Everyone waits, hardly reading.
Each one a pain too many.
No one can explain.

This is not science
but a discovery of hands.  Eyes
deceive and hide where life defects.

One baby walks like a Turkish
soldier, yellow and red.
The fat lady doesn’t sing
but dozes in a dust of thoughts.

I can’t bear being healthy
in a room of wounds: Betrayal
casts its shadow, day
pounds down its bones and cells.

LATIN LOVER

I want it to be violent
like the throat of a revolver
kissing and smoking.
Never mind your folds enveloping
like red carnations. Let me pretend
it's dangerous: You, a stranger,
clutch with terrorist claws.
You cry, a murderess
or a refugee. The forests
ring desperate and deep. Hostage
is too kind a word.

I tell you,
Put in the bullet:
I want to try your country.
 

David Radavich is the author of Slain Species (Court Poetry Press, London), By the Way: Poems over the Years (Buttonwood Press, 1998), and Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2000). He has also published four plays and a wide range of poetry in anthologies and literary magazines. His plays have been performed across the U.S., including five Off-Off-Broadway productions. Fragments of the Third Planet received its European premiere in spring-summer 2000. Radavich has written a variety of essays on poetry, drama, and contemporary arts. Recipient of numerous literary awards, he was named an Illinois Distinguished Author in 1995.