ANIMA
I am going to take part in the movement of the constellations.
Spark or speck of a meteor.
The water is calm, fish hide among the reefs: I am going to sing
while I follow the small creek's
sinuous path to its mouth
of reeds: at my lips a reed pipe.
A peasant's broad handkerchief a fan of anemones.
I get rid of prosopopoeias metalepsis anagoges and all other propositions of
formal knowledge.
I dislodge my old self: I am carnal, I sing. Let the palace gates stand
open for me, mother
(I sing) guided by
my silhouette's contours.
A tablecloth (on) the wide meadow (the constellations, an abacus):
poppies at the creek's
mouth (lilies) (catnip).
Call to me, bittern: heron, summon my silhouette. My mouth
crammed with burdock, milkweed
grows from my corduroy pants.
Alleluia the marten the muskrat (its mouth buckwheat) its
flower crowding the granary
(lotus posture).
José Kozer
Translation by Peter Boyle