SIbilA – AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POETRY

TWO PARTS OF SERPENT NORATO
Raul Bopp

IV

This is the forest of fetid breath
birthing snakes

Skinny rivers forced to work
The current bristles
peeling phlegmy banks

Toothless roots chew loam

In a flooded stretch
the marsh swallows the stream
Stench
The wind moved on
A hiss frightens the trees
Silence bruises itself

A dry trunk falls
up ahead
Boom

A scream crosses the forest
Other voices arrive

River choked on a sandbank

I spy a frog frog
I smell the smell of a gentleman
“Who are you?” says he

“I am the Serpent Norato
I'm going to shack up with Queen Luzia's daughter”

V

This is the trees' school
They're studying geometry

"You were born blind You have to obey the river"

"Ay, ay! We're the river's slaves"

"You're condemned to work always always
You must make leaves to blanket the forest"

"Ay, ay! We're the river's slaves"

"You must drown men in shadows
The forest is man's enemy"

"Ay,ay! We're the river's slaves"

I cross thick walls
I hear the little screams of the needhelplings
Birds are being punished

"If you don't know the lesson you have to be trees"
"Eyeeeeeyeeeeeyeeeyeeeee…"

"What are you going to do up there?"

"I announce the Moon
as it rises behind the Wood"

"And you?"
"I wake the stars on St. John's nights"

"And you?"
“I have to count the hours in the wild depths”

chioog…chioog…chioog…
twhee   twhee-twhee

Translation: Jennifer Sarah Frota

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