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  • The American Poetry Review

    TWO POEMS

    Jan 01, 2019 1 minute
    ALISON C. ROLLINS

    To Whoever Is Reading Me

    after Jorge Luis Borges

    You are invulnerable.The only thing constant is change.Such repetition leads to nostalgiafor the present. Tense and timidyou recite this book by heart. Blindfoldedyou commit me to memory.The baldhead scallywag philosopherknows that man’s character is his fate.This poem—not alive, but the remainsof a construct known as will.Heraclitus is walking on water in Libyaor: .Be wary of how the translator twistsmy words, these ruins he interprets asalive. Why do you dread being forgotten?Know that in some senseyou are already dead.

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