Sunday Poem

FROM A LINE OF DARIO

"da al viento la cabellera"

With no dissenting votes

we gave to the wind her hair.

It brushes your cheeks,

now it brushes mine.

To the bee and to

the hummingbird:

her breasts.

We envy them the sweetness

that will be gathered there.

To the ocean belong

both her feet.

They will become

two inseparable

incredible fish

who may come out to leave

strange prints

beckoning bachelors

to walk out to sea.

We give the ocean

both her feet

and we warn you.

Many claimed her hands:

A tree wanted them

for fruit that would

be eager, for fruit

that would not wait.

A flock of birds

petitioned for her hands

claiming poetic justice

would be served were

the feet in the water

to be echoed by

the hands in the air.

We agree with this logic;

give instead to the tree

her ears

that it may hear itself

stretch and grow.

From The Invention of Honey (1990) by Ricardo Sternberg.