Your Name-After Marina Tsvetaeva Your name is asnake around my throat, a thistle on my tongue. Your namesix letters.

A squirrel shot in flight, a brass zipper in my mouth. A boulder fallen from an eroding cliff That crashes into a passing cars windshield the sound of your name. The harsh stamp of steel boots at night your name. Your name at my temple harsh kick of a dirty hoof. Your nameunbearable Spit on my eyes, the pinch of closed eyelids. Your namea deafening slap to the face. Black gulp of salty ocean water. With your nameelephants are eliminated.

To the American Cockroach Please, come in and dont forget to invite your friends: the Brownbanded and the Germans. Let them stay for cheese, beer, and flakes of dead skin. During the day, hide in the dark behind my refrigerator and under my floorboards to shield your thousand eyes. Turn your life into a game: starve your sideways mouth for a month, survive, if you can, two weeks without water. After that: hold your breath for forty minutes. Scuttle three miles on your six legs in less than an hour. Finally pluck off your antennae and cut off your head, But be careful: your winged thorax must stay alive for at least a week. After this, I invite you to die. And please, dont forget to take your friends.