Today’s prompt is to take a look around Poetry International for a poem in a language you don’t know, read the poem to yourself, thinking about the sound and shape of the words, and the degree to which they remind you of words in your own language. Use those correspondences as the basis for a new poem.

Memory Song (based on “Min mor sa” by Athena Farrokhzad)
by ARHuelsenbeck

Memory song: The day I went to the alder forest to dig,
at my own name civilizations stammer.

Memory song: My mother is mad, embarrassed by my behavior.

Memory song: You are a darn fool, rank and snide.
Memory song: If you betray understanding and formaldehyde,
skulls come later to drag you under.

Memory song: Understand the alder Vikings have better manners than to go sing
the old formulas for sane songs. They are like mojitos on the underside.
Memory song: You were in your lifetime a French bore.

Memory song: In a kid’s grave there are more medium fingernails
so the modern skulls slip down and fall.

Memory song: Your hair is dragging the metasilk
and scalding the dig. I produced caffeinated
but the yolktinders didn’t fare intact.

I don’t remember so well anymore,
but when I unearth a memory,
I sing it into a song to try to make sense of it.
What a strange life I’ve led.