James Stotts

smoking a cigarette

on the steps

in the dark

a dozen moths

dancing

on my naked back

blind

choreographers

anymore

i need the story

told

in their touch

 

written june 21, 2020

 

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James Stotts was born in 1982, the last of five children, in southern Colorado, and grew up in New Mexico. He studied Russian literature and linguistics at the University of New Mexico, was a research assistant in Russian at Boston College, and has translated the Russian poetry of Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva, Esenin, Brodsky, Boris Ryzhy and others. He has traveled and studied in Russia on numerous occasions. He lives in Boston with his son. His published books include Since and Elgin Pelicans.

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