On the occasion of Poetry Month, The duty, with the complicity of the Office of Poetic Affairs, gives a poem to read each week. First of five.
Wasteland to defend
at the end of our traumas there is a wasteland and in this wasteland an iron box contains the sea
we cultivate it in secret
forever lukewarm children we are made of pink skin
moist and tender as the inside of the cheek
our arms yearn for thinness
railwaymen’s caps on our match heads mixed hair or birds’ nests straw dolls ready to burn
under the sun of an end of the world that we postpone
we french
when you make an effort you hear the frogs
we transcend the emptying we blur the edges
orange cones are ducks syringes are ripe fruit destroying is no longer an option and weasel chaos is king
our boots no longer take on water
our throats no longer slit
when the joy passes
we let ourselves float between the blue seaweed muddy undines
replete with fetid water and dreams we simmer our myths
imagine a beast
built of plots of refusal
proud beast with heavy bones open wings soft muzzle
to lay our heads tender beast with erect ears where to flow our voices in prayers
we draw in troubled waters an indomitable beast
because our bodies scream at rest
in the aqueous present our swims lengthen
we find our herds invaded by moss
we are young and wrinkled, heirs to a rusty memory haunted by the melancholy of railways abandoned by the hoarse song of dying objects
we come down from the drought
a pity of sand as a mouth we had to dig for a long time
chasing our ghosts on motocross
mine our soils to extract our voices
now we know
resistance is learned through heat islands
she belongs to the offspring of dust
let’s run
let’s run faster to convince ourselves we are locomotive and under our feet the rails fly away
we join the drones the seagulls the angels
before our eyes the wasteland grows
chews up the asphalt covers the walls erases all traces of violence
the canned sea soon swells overflows swallows the walls
our immense little sea unfolds its beach
at the top of the mound the beast stands
solid on her legs she will not move