Friday, May 8

TWO SHIPS

      a four-hand poem

the, the dead, the dead slave, the dead slave’s body, the dead slave’s body is, the dead slave’s body is thrown, the dead slave’s body is thrown overboard, the dead slave’s body is thrown overboard from, the dead slave’s body is thrown overboard from the, the dead slave’s body is thrown overboard from the ship, the dead slave’s body is thrown overboard from the ship and, the enslaved body is thrown overboard from the ship and the waves, the enslaved is thrown overboard from the ship and the waves wash, her body is thrown overboard from the ship and the waves wash it, my mother is thrown overboard from the ship and the waves wash her ashore. she, she rises, she rises and, she rises and swims, she rises and swims slowly, she rises and swims slowly in, she rises and swims slowly in the, she rises and swims slowly in the wake, she rises and swims slowly in the wake of, she rises and swims slowly in the wake of what, she rises and swims slowly in the wake of what has, she rises and swims slowly in the wake of what has no, she breathes like the waves, she rises and rises slowly in the wake of what has no name.

(Eraldo Souza dos Santos and Nilva Moreira de Souza)