Feature image by René Magritte. Edward James in front of “On the Threshold of Liberty,” 1937. Gelatin silver print. From the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

The universe (this time) leave out.
Star dust has settled, and if it now resembles the sea,
a suburban climate hangs above it.
Leave out too the cocoons of souls in thousand-year wars
and their testaments.
Leave out bygone centuries. Each fossil
is overburdened with life
drowning inside a life-buoy made of marble.
Leave out the gilded spines and the names of those
who never die.
Leave out the marvelous childhood, details of a sparkling morn,
which gently settles into a time out of mind.
And leave out his brothers too, who linger here
in faded photographs
and in some events, like a dagger
suddenly raised into the air,
in which it all still hangs.

Kamil Bouška
Kamil Bouška is a Czech poet. His first solo collection is Oheň po slavnosti (Fra, 2011), for which he received two nominations for the Magnesia Litera award, in the Poetry and Discovery of the Year categories. His poems have been chosen for the annual Nejlepší české básně ("Best Czech Poetry") anthology four years in a row (2009 to 2012). His second collection of poetry, Hemisféry (Fra, 2015), has recently been published in Prague.

Ondrej Pazdirek
Ondrej Pazdirek is a translator and a poet. He grew up in Prague, Czech Republic and is currently finishing his M.A. in Poetry at the University of Cincinnati. His translations from Czech have appeared in B O D Y. His own poems have been published in Bayou Magazine, Radar Poetry, and Euphony.