Jul 31^st

Poetry Travels with Anna Blasiak and Lisa Kalloo: OX AND MANDARIN // A COMPENDIUM by Milla van der Have

when the sun is at its height
all travels must end

for Ox

and for Mandarin

who haven’t yet met
and will continue do so
for a long time

Ox knows

and Mandarin knows

but neither are ready
not for a long stride

because Ox carries

and Mandarin is the weight
that breaks the trees

and when Ox stumbles

Mandarin catches a drift
without knowing where it’s coming from

and when Mandarin appears

Ox considers a shining star
to be the new true north

(although a symbol of a certain predilection)

just so Ox sometimes
in the meadow before being born
remembers something

that hardly makes sense when you’re alone

and Mandarin’s fortunes indicate
there are too many lucky charms in the world
for it to be mere coincidence

so no
no matter what
zenith may arise

Ox will move

and Mandarin will move

and each has their own Rubicon to cross
on the other side of which

lies sacrilege

and many mistakes, disguised
as something un-noteworthy
spying on you through papers full of holes

if only Ox could go
where emperors went

if only Mandarin was made
for statues and grand balls

but even so
this isn’t the end
not for them

not for a long stride

not for a brutal gasp

the world will remain unanswered
give or take a heliotrope

give or take a bovine sage

give or take a cunning jest

By Milla van der Have

Poem from Milla van der Have’s Ox and Mandarin I Wayfaring Strangers. A Counterfeit Zodiac, Dancing Girl Press, 2024.

Milla van der Have wrote her first poem at 16, during a physics class. She has been writing ever since. Her work has been published in literary magazines, both in the US, UK and Latin-America. In 2016, she debuted with Ghosts of Old Virginny (Aldrich Press), a chapbook about Virginia City, Nevada. Her second chapbook, Avistamiento de Ballenas (51GL0 V3NT1Dó5), a bilingual collection in Spanish and English, followed in 2021. Milla’s latest work, Ox and Mandarin | Wayfaring Strangers (Dancing Girl Press, 2024), delves into surreal poetry, with a Spanish translation published by Ril Editores. Based in Utrecht, The Netherlands, she curates “Poetry Lit!”, an international online reading series held every second Friday of the month.

Photo by Lisa Kalloo

Check out the Poetry Travels book list on bookshop.org.

Read previous poems in the Poetry Travels series:

ROYAL PEACOCK by Veroniki Dalakoura, translated by John Taylor

SNAKE DEATHS by Monika Herceg, translated by Marina Veverec

ON THE WAY TO THE SHOP by Marija Dejanović, translated by Vesna Maric

*** (MY LOVE, YOU SAID YOU WERE A WOLF) by Ruzanna Voskanyan, translated by Nieri Avanessian

RED ZONE by Iryna Tsilyk, translated by Vitaly Chernetsky

THE SPIDER by Danae Sioziou, translated by Panagiotis Kechagias and Mania Meziti

UNTITLED by Johanna Venho, translated by Anselm Hollo

THE KNOWLEDGE OF EVERYTHING by Eleni Cay, translated by the Author

ALIBI by Ewa Brzoza Birk, translated by Anna Blasiak