Nicanor Parra

Something Like That (excerpt) PARRA LAUGHS like he’s condemned to hell but when haven’t poets laughed? at least he declares that he’s laughing they pass the years pass the years at least they seem to be passing hypothesis non fingo  everything goes on as if they were passing now he starts to cry forgetting that he’s an antipoet 0 STOP RACKING YOUR BRAINS nobody reads poetry nowadays it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad 0 FOUR DEFECTS that my Ophelia won’t forgive me for: old lowlife communist and National Literature Prize <<My family may be able to forgive you  for the first three but never for the last>> 0 MY CORPSE and I understand each other marvelously my corpse asks me: do you believe in God? and I respond with a hearty NO my corpse asks: do you believe in the government? and I respond with the hammer and sickle my corpse asks: do you believe in the police? and I respond with a punch in the face then he gets up out of his coffin and we go arm in arm to the altar 0 THE TRUE PROBLEM of philosophy is who does the dishes nothing otherworldly God     the truth         the passage of time absolutely but first, who does the dishes whoever wants to do them, go ahead see ya later, alligator         and we're right back to being enemies 0 HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT compose a sonnet     that begins with the following iambic pentameter line:     I would prefer to die ahead of you and that ends with the following:     I would prefer that you be first to die 0