Across Time and Space

Awaiting beneath the wind and snow of stars

the arrival of an obscene flower on my faded brow

like a landscape deserted by the birds called sighs of the sage

and which fly in the direction of love

there’s my fate

there’s my life

Life that nature has made full of feathers

and of poisons of children

I am your humble servant

I am your humble servant and I bite the weeds of clouds

that you offer me on a cushion

which

like an immortal  thigh

keeps its first warmth and provokes desire

that will never ease

either the flame coming from an inconsistent monster

or the blood of the goddess

voluptuous despite the sterility of the bird of interior bayous

From The Big Game, by Benjamin Peret.  Translated, with an introduction by Marilyn Kallet.  Published by Black Widow Press, Boston, 2011.