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This poem is taken from PN Review 191, Volume 36 Number 3, January - February 2010.

The Water Cycle: Variation on a Theme James Womack

I want... I want everything I’ve ever seen in the movies!
Leo Bloom, The Producers (1968)

I. Trevi Fountain

 
In 19 BC, Agrippa built
the aqueduct that would eventually
bring water here. He guessed the iconic image
of Anita Ekberg bathing, he dreamed
of her matronly breasts, he fucked her in his dreams,
Agrippa did - the bastard. Others come and throw a coin
as a charm to return here, thinking unconsciously:
‘Maybe the next time she’ll be here.’
And they don’t see that she is here, bathing,
that her breasts mother the dreams of the eternal city.

after the Spanish of Martín López-Vega


II. Los Angeles Storm Drains

 
In AD 1930, the Army Corps of Engineers built
...


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