TERMINAL POEMS

The Translator

19 / 40 · IV. The Hand

She knew three languages
well enough to dream in them.

The client sends a file.
Just clean it up.

Cleaning up
is what you call it
when you undress a sentence
someone else
has already dressed
in the wrong clothes.

She fixes the grammar.
Leaves the soul
where it fell –

somewhere between
the source
and what the machine
decided
it meant.
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