Rimas Uzgiris is a Lithuanian/American poet and translator. His work has appeared in Barrow Street, Hudson Review, The Poetry Review and elsewhere. He is the author of North of Paradise, and Tarp [Between], (poems translated into Lithuanian, shortlisted for poetry book of the year), translator of eight poetry collections from Lithuanian, and the Venice Biennale Golden Lion winning operetta Sun and Sea. He was educated at UCSD, UW-Madison, Rutgers-Newark, with a Ph.D. in philosophy and an MFA in creative writing. Recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Grant and an NEA Translation Fellowship, he teaches at Vilnius University.

Rimas Uzgiris

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Quicksilver

the melting silver
of raindrops

in emergent sun
illuminates

a manuscript of
black birch script

my god, it's like seeing
mercury

squeezed from words
just as they begin

to quicken
in your feverish hands

the messenger god
with no message