A Most Delicious Cheese Pie


I organized a formal party,
And for the guests I

Bought the flour, bought the cheese,
Baked a crumbly

Pie. Knives and forks were set,
And then for the guests

I waited. But the pie enticed me,
Perhaps… maybe… one thin slice…

See, I pushed aside the chair, succumbed
To desire: soon it was gone.

When the guests arrived,
There were not even crumbs…


After Daniil Kharms
adapted, from the Russian, by Susan Hogan

 
Susan Hogan is an MFA student in Poetry at San Diego State University. Daniil Kharms (1905-1942) was an early Soviet-era surrealist and absurdist poet, writer, and dramatist.