absence

This is the kingdom
of an exasperated tongue,
one without shape or form,

where words burst
from a withered heart
of straw,

this is a kingdom
hostile to the countless
hairs of water,

a diadem
missing all the gems
of your teeth,

kingdom abandoned
to the dogs of autumn,
to the milk of nettles,

to the roots of sleep.


Eugénio de Andrade, Dark Domain, trans. Alexis Levitin (Toronto: Guernica, 2000).