Ceci n'est pas un homme

Ladies and gentlemen,
I give you the prodigious man in the top hat
prepare to be diverted, for tonight he will perform
his most infamous trick.

Now even if you look closely,
you will see no rabbit -
Rest assured  it's not there.
I myself have been inside it once,

took the hat for the magician's heart,
ended up in a room in the devil's mind.
Do not be foolished by the many pictures
I have painted of him before, out of love and devotion.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I give you the spectacular man in the top hat
behold his elegantly fabricated smile,
before he vanishes through the hole in the hat.

(Share with The Real Toads)

The incog silences of green

I trusted the incog silences of green
to tell the story of how our lives
were interwoven
much before this encounter.

There was nothing about it in the sky,
this which draws us close,
they weren't our names
written on the tree trunks.

Still I find you where the sky begins,
you find me where the chaos ends.
You see, there is a line of ants
that collects our pieces together

with the fallen leaves.
Whoever crosses a forest
carrying someone else's heart to a secure place
has the right to the sun in the clearing.

(The incog silences of green is the title of one of my photo projects that can be seen here)

(Shared with The Real Toads)

Safe distance

History teaches me that
before we get too close
you will beat the retreat.

Before your dagger
touches my neck
and you're forced to

either look me in the eyes
or slit my throat
you will choose to

keep a safe distance.

Continuum

I wait within your silence
and replicate the emptiness
you left around.

I'm no longer afraid
of walking on my own shoes
through the darkness

or not knowing if
you'll ever be there for me
near or far or one day.

We are lucky to have been
a laughter,
a word,
a risk

to each other
for a day,
a year,

or the persistence
of what we called
continuum.



Eu espero no teu silêncio
e replico o imenso vazio
já não tenho medo

nem de caminhar com os meus
próprios pés no escuro
nem de não sabê-lo

longe ou perto ou nunca.
O que houve foi a sorte
de ter sido

por um dia, 
um ano
ou a duração de um infinito

uma risada,
uma palavra,
um risco.

To finally learn you

I have now gotten rid of mostly
every word I thought for you last year.
now they burn in my head among
blurred, naive memories

now they are ashes sprinkled
so far into the woods
the wind won't find them,
we won't see them again.

You come to me in a dream tentatively
because you know, being tired,
I'm likely to scream. Because you know,
being angry, I'm likely to forget.

Your smile touches the skin on my chest
I have been waiting outside in the cold for so long,
I want to use the time I have left
to finally learn you.