Sunday 29 May 2011

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.

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