Tom Chandler is the Poet Laureate Emeritus of Rhode Island. He is the author of five books of poems, including the latest Toy Firing Squad (2008). He is a professor of creative writing at Bryant University.

汤姆-羌德勒曾是美国罗得岛州的桂冠诗人。他出过五本诗集，现为布来恩大学创作班教授。

何丽明，出生及居于香港。曾就读香港大学，主修英国文学及翻译。现任教于香港大学英文系。于2006年主编《香港大学写作》及于2008年合編短篇小說集《爱与欲》。她曾担任美国《字沙律诗刊》编辑并与友人合办《茶：亚洲文学季刊》。

Tammy Ho Lai-ming is Hong Kong-born and –based. She studied English Literature & Translation at the University of Hong Kong and currently teaches at the School of English there. She edited Hong Kong U Writing: An Anthology (2006) and co-edited Love & Lust (2008). She was also a co-editor of Word Salad Poetry Magazine and is a co-founder of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal.

Primordia

原基

Again the season shrivels, voices howl dark song 
across the forest and are gone, again the wind 
has licked the land, its tongue of frost.
The season shrivels, dark voices howl song.

All along the wasteland babies tossed 
in ditches huddle now like shadows,
lost among the ruins of stone.
The season shrivels, dark voices howl song

alone across the forest and are gone.
The lichen curls to black along the ruinous 
backs of stone and out across the wasteland
babies tossed like shadows howl long.

The season shrivels, dark voices huddle now 
across the wasted forest and are gone.
			

季节再度枯死　声音咆哮黑暗之歌
横越森林　然后消失　风又一次
狂舔大地　舌头是霜
季节枯死　黑暗声音咆哮着歌

荒地的婴孩一直在沟内翻来覆去
那些沟渠挤作一团　有如幻影
在大石废墟中灭亡
季节枯死　黑暗声音咆哮着歌

孤独地横越森林　然后消失　
卷曲的地衣遍布那漆黑的倾圮
大石的背部　还横越荒地
婴孩翻来覆去像幻影　咆哮长

季节枯死　黑暗声音挤作一团
横越那荒废的森林　然后消失
			

The Cows

母牛

So much has been said on the subject 
already, their bedroom eyes 
and lush udders, their tendency to all face 
one way before a rain, how they're tipped 
by drunken teens and of course 
their delicious bodies which we place 
inside ours with such passion, as if 
to absorb them, as if to erase them 
from the world but I wanted to tell 
how bright birds in me lift 
when I round a back road bend 
to see them spread across a field, 
their broad brown hulls, 
their gentle jaws, their slow ballet,  
the graceful way they inherit the earth, 
shit it out at the same time.
			

这课题大家应该耳熟能详
母牛们的睡梦眼睛
她们多汁的乳房
下雨前她们总爱面向同一方
还说醉酒少年常跘倒她们
当然少不了那美味的身躯
被热情的放进我们的身躯
好像要把她们据为己有
好像要把她们从大地回收
但我要说的
是我体内愉快的雀儿如何飞舞
当我绕过一段弯曲的后路
看到遍地的母牛
她们宽阔的褐色的身体
温柔的下頜　随游的芭蕾舞步
她们继承大地的雅致
同时把它拉出来
			

Still Life with Smoker

吸烟者的静物画

The man in the car next to me at the stoplight
plucked a small paper tube from behind his ear.

It was stuffed with dead leaves which he tamped
with his finger as we waited for change.

As I watched, the man plugged in 
one end of the tube to his mouth,

then set the other end on fire, 
soaked the smoke deep down inside 

and when the green light implied 
it was alright to move

he billowed out twin streams like ghosts
through his nose and drove away forever,

a dragon, bright skull 
heading south in light traffic.
			

在红绿灯前停下来　邻车的男人
从耳后摘下一小纸管

正当我们等候交通灯演变　
他用指头捣实纸管内无生命的叶子

我在看　男人把管子的一端
塞进嘴内

另一端他放火燃烧
然后深深的把烟浸透体内

绿灯亮了
可以前行

男人像鬼魅　鼻孔释放两道光影
他再次驾车　是驶向永恆

他或是龙　发光的龙头
在空旷的路上  朝南驶去