Does not the risen yeast swell on the generosity

by Mikhail Eremin
from POEMS
     translated by Alex Cigale

* * *

Does not the risen yeast swell on the generosity
Of leavening?  Is not the fungus floret fattened,
Spreading its feathery fleece broadly
On the surface of the pastry roll?
Does not the ergot consume the gold
Of the still unharvested sheaves of grain,
Rotten at the root, not unlike those debased by the aurum
Of the commodity market?

2009

* * *

For whom but Athena to know what hidden in her Father’s
head? — Is it not
From her someone by birth from Colonus learned
That an occupation is a prediction, and no prophecy?
It may be that gossip regarding knowledge lost
Is not so idle, even if, let’s say, Aphrodite,
Already not white-spumed, but not yet white-marbled,
Perplexed the mortals in love with her with tall tales of low-lying
Ruins.

2011

* * *

Hiring freeze, takeover, foretaste of profits —
Half-game half-lesson for the benefit of the populace.
Offset and futures, spot and forward —
Half-game half-accounting, as they say,
The capital was put to work.  Half-game half-treachery,
Half-vice half-deviousness — this list is incomplete,
That it at times be selfless, if nothing else,
This half-game half-play of indenture to the muses

2013