Neck
legs
skin
stomach
liver
kidneys
heart
lard
bristle
intestines:
a dictionary
we cut
into pieces
on the table,

chew on its words,
clueless
about their bloody
etymology. The tongue

only knows
what is
sweet, the eye
enjoys
the shape
of the dish,
and then
the hand (mute, blind, clean)
writes poems
celebrating
dinner.

We say: it’s all a matter
of taste. A culinary
truth. Elegant,
diamond-encrusted
knife sheath
for the knife. A well-directed
TV ad for sausages. The screen
assembled by hungry
people rolling
in the mud.

–Dimiter Kenarov,
translated from the Bulgarian
by Dimiter Kenarov

Dimiter Kenarov was born on January 25th, 1981 in Sofia. He has studied in the United States at Middlebury College and the University of California Berkeley. He works as a freelance journalist, poet, literary critic, translator and writer. He is the author of two collections of poetry, most recently Apocryphal Animals (2010), as well as a book of translations of selected poems of Elizabeth Bishop. His work has appeared in various English language magazines and newspapers and has been anthologized in The Best American Travel Writing. In his free time, Dimiter swims, snowboards and takes pictures of the world.