Three Poems from France

Tail light. Photo: Sarah-Rose/Flickr

Pistoning

seas rise and
mountains flow a river spreads
in the bed of an undulating
valley forests
wither and entire cities
blossom people copulate there
on certain nights and depart
in the morning by car

Civilization

I founded a tribe
created paths cut down
all the forests built
cities connected all of it
with cables and wavelengths then every-
body killed each other
I didn’t understand why
and turned off the computer

Urban Postcard

the concrete of beaches
dragged to the bottom of the oceans
by paths of asphalt
toward the windows of
skylines and in the chips
of silica of the printed
circuits we surf
over shipwrecked cities

Translations from the French
By Pauline Levy Valensi