Insomnia
It is a stain that feeds on moons
brings thoughts that leave you outside your body
you see them from afar
sometimes they spin around
they bump into each other
argue
cut their veins
when they calm down
they sit there obstinate and annoyed
they clench their fists
to hit someone.
This stain spreads to the rooms
with their respective silences
then plants in us an earthquake
that passes from our hands to our eyes.
Arsenic fills the bed
brings out the candles
swells them for her descendents.
Never place minutes to soak
leave them as they are: stones
that thrown at the night outside
make cats howl.
She in her immortality
mocks the valerian pills
and bit by bit
she grows pregnant
threatens to bring forth beings who beneath their big hats
always have their rolling tobacco
that takes any spasm defeated by sleep
and makes it disappear.
Translator: Alexis Levitin’s thirty-two books in translation include Clarice Lispector’s Soulstorm and Eugenio de Andrade’s Forbidden Words (both from New Directions).His two most recent books are Eugenio de Andrade’s The Art of Patience (Red Dragonfly Press, 2013) and Ana Minga’s Tobacco Dogs (The Bitter Oleander Press, 2013). He is also awaiting the bilingual publication of Eugenio de Andrade’s The Art of Patience (Red Dragonfly Press, in 2013.) Also forthcoming are a collection of short stories, Exemplary Tales, by Sophia de Mello Bryenner, and Salgado Maranhao’s Tiger Fur.
