PARA VOCÊ ❋ Alexandra Khan-Anselmo

This work comes from the collection Para Você, which was shortlisted for The Metatron Prize for Rising Authors.

 

SEM MAIS LÁGRIMAS .. NO MORE TEARS

there is no place i can visit you

no tombstone with your name
our name

no tree
no park bench
you who never had a home

no coisas nossas

just muddied memory
at the bottom of every drink
at the lowest note of every bossa song

you
a brushed drum in Gentle Rain

and us
lost to the world

 

UM ANO .. ONE YEAR

one year and still
there is no word like
your name

 

NAVALHA .. RAZOR

close my eyes to remember
every wrinkle, every mole
the shape of your hair
the shade of your razor
burn neck
red heat from all the sun
gold from all the beer
cans cracking in the memory of you
1000 aluminum tabs

 

A PAISAGEM .. LANDSCAPE

hidden in the pines of an evergreen
holding ancestors in trees
waiting for you to pass by
to drop needles on my
sleeves
a blackberry bush to snag my sweater
a stone to trip over
water to catch me
in a forest by the sea
anything to remind me
de você e eu

 

BOIAR .. SWIM

asleep on the bed in the middle of the day
tape you snoring
ocean ink fills my mind
swim there
skin changing colour
eyes begin to burn
the chain of your hand gripping near the surface
chiseling out new hollows
of an unturned world
tied to your freedom

 

SAPATO .. SHOE

a life not poetic
artistic, not grand

never accomplishing much
not anything for that matter

satisfied waiting on me
with ginger ale and cranberry

 

TREZE .. THIRTEEN

Sure Thing on repeat in a rental car
an ice-cream cone dripping down my hand
you bought me my first hoodie
spoke in French
shaved my underarm
cut my toe nail
on the only vacation we took together

 

VERIFICAÇÕES .. CHECKS

mowed the lawn in the rain
did a wheelie on a two wheeler in america

until someone said
you can’t ride on one wheel
get down, you can’t be up there

so get back, go back
where
wherever you came from