They say the first
letter of my name evolved
from a picture of a
carcass
a cabeça de vaca
sem as suas costelas
expostas like claws
or jaws ancient
my
neighbor says not to
let my son sleep
on my bed but I do
I
know the terror
at night we’re haunted
by my great great great
grand-
parents dry on cracked
soil beating in the cold
of my feet na Bahia in the
bones
they inhabit on my bed
In America, I learned
that arroyos are
paths
carved by the rain
but I already knew
at
night the cracked soil
calls for me, as
cabeças
de vaca of my greats
calling and calling
I
tell them I don’t
know you, but I
do
_______________________
the city’s spine
is a split bifurcation
solidified in calcium
in
America they
eat the bagasse of
oranges and say my
name
means bliss I am
in love with bone white
concrete, the spine of the
city
sits fleshless and free
of scales flexible bones
that can bend and bend
and
keep bending and keep
bending and bending
bending right up until they
snap
After Nathaniel Mackey
and Caetano Veloso
