The Poetry Section: Alex Dimitrov, 'Self Portrait as Brigitte Bardot in Contempt'

by Mark Bibbins, Editor

Today: two short new poems by Alex Dimitrov, including “Self Portrait as Brigitte Bardot in Contempt.”

Self Portrait as Brigitte Bardot in Contempt

In the theater of bitters
where we sharpen,

I am your favorite actress.

The curtains sway, safe in their red light;
the props, once used, still gleam-

because even our own end loves us.

And here, stage left
I bow over you and listen

to the hot, uneven rhythm of your pulse.

It tells me you are deserving-
you accept this gift, this black collar

I tighten around your neck, this final kindness.

All Souls Day

Before I leave here, I want
to hear my name change in the mouth

of another animal.
Let it take long.

He’ll want what I wanted from you-
blood at its richest,

most luminous, in that first moment
it touches the air.

Like the hunted
I need the day’s sharpness-

deeper water,
something alive to sift

through me and kill.

Alex Dimitrov is the founder of Wilde Boys, a queer poetry salon in New York City. His poems have appeared in the Yale Review, Best New Poets 2009, the Southwest Review, and other journals. He works at the Academy of American Poets, frequently writes for Poets & Writers magazine, and has been the recipient of a Hopwood Award from the University of Michigan.

The Poetry Section can be reached at [email protected].