[two women]
Two women watch over your grave.
Me and the person I might have been.
[the night porter]
The night porter reaches out his hand.
His nails are shiny like windows.
I fall from the seventh floor.
[there isn’t room]
There isn’t room for two women. Otherwise, most things come
in pairs; breasts, bones, lungs, kidneys and testicles. Woe
to who must choose one of the two. She will always
long for her other half.
Marie Lundquist (b. 1950, Sweden) is the acclaimed author of 11 books of poetry and prose as well as plays written for radio. In addition to writing and translating, she has worked as a librarian and a teacher. Lundquist has received numerous awards and honors, including Sveriges Radios Lyrikpris (2002), stipendium from the Svenska Akademien (2007), De Nios Lyrikpris (2008) and the Aspenströmpriset (2015).
Kristina Bicher is a poet, essayist and translator whose work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Hayden’s Ferry, Narrative, Barrow Street, Painted Bride Quarterly, The Atlantic, and others. She received an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City.