far words

I cried the truth out everywhere
and then I found I couldn’t sleep

uncover the basket and see what you find:
a chopped-off tongue !

a guillotine !

I wish I hadn’t told the truth
I would be sleeping still
in lullabies
and legends.

once my eyes were so sharp
I could see like an owl

but now! ...

once my feet carried my head proudly
and all the cedars bowed down
paying tribute to my poems

but now!...

the guillotine !

oh, my lifetime ! a lame and lumpy rhythm!
because I cried out the truth
and nobody heard!

Lazarus

a giant red scorpion over the city
his long legs like huge crosses
and my body, turning into sponge
drunk up the poison of a copper cloud
you, rise up, ‘ye of little faith’ !
rise up, you carpenters and brickmakers!
go mend the roof of the orphanage!

a sacred spider in the streets
and in the attic of dusted lips
and it was the spider or the scorpion, or maybe both
that walked on the buttocks of the shy prostitute
rise up, you lesbians! rise up, men without fathers!
rise up, suicide attempers! masters!
I have just returned from the World of the Dead
and there is nothing there, nothing!

but be quiet! do not tell the truth !

white man

I who get this romantic soul from a Komançi
speak to kangaroos, but the white man doesn’t know it

a compass, a mirror and a watch with a chain
Great Manito! keep me away from damned things

look! the Blue Jacket troop has appeared suddenly
the fusils vomitting fire in their hands

the sky has no an owner, the soil belongs to all us
can the mud of the delicate river valley be sold

those Pale Faced fond of comic strips
think America is the land of Red Kid

who is more civilized, and which one is the Wild West
America, the ugly-faced, and the hunchback of Notre Dame

the white man knows cannibal tales well
homo hominu lipus, homo hominu lipus

Titanic

shivering, the woman
in the deck of love whispered:
a piece of ice left in the wine glass
of offending words
cannot sink the ship
look around ! all the voyagers are sleeping
kiss and embrace me
kiss and embrace me
like gulls on the back
of a dolphin
crossing the ocean
just so cheerfully and crazily
kiss and embrace me
kiss and embrace me
death crashes into us
like a ship passing
through an iceberg
and our love finds
its own depth

rasping pain

my days are temporary
and my life is deaf
and soon I’ll depart
this slow rotating axle
like the worn tyre
of an old truck
and maybe someone
someone with a silken voice
will attach me to an old pier
as a buffer for boats
a man will knot me
with a false mooring-line !
then as soon as the boats
begin to rub against me
the pains of death
will start rasping

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