My Hand Below Zero
by Emmanuel Merle (translated from French by Jeffrey Jullich)

  1. appeared on the windowpane, drawn through condensation.
  2. I look at them stretched out from the other side:
  3. they walk but do not move forward,
  1. then I place my forehead on the window’s
  2. picture, to cool down my fever.
  3. Nothing is real except a few unraveled gestures,
  4. patched faces, overcoats without any coat racks
  5. other than emaciated shoulders.
Packingtown Review – Vol.14, Fall 2020

Contemporary French poet Emmanuel Merle has published 21 books of poetry since 2004; his Amère Indienne was translated into English and published in Canada; he has translated books by the American poets David Ferry and Jennifer Barber. Merle teaches literature, and is president of l’Espace Pandora. A book of criticism has been published on his Les dernières paroles de Perceval.

Jeffrey Jullich has two books of poetry published: Thine Instead Thank, and Portrait of Colon Dash Parenthesis. He has been published in various literary journals: Fence, New American Writing, Poetry, etc., and has also published translations from the French of Robert de Montesquiou, the “Victor Hugo Ouija” poems, and Francis Picabia.

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