POST-PANDEMIC LIFE
Translated by Sabela Guy
Let’s
take the what-was
along for a walk
tied to our feet
just as nutters do
with their belongings
we drag with it
cries
and songs from our windows
news of the dead
and the dead-still-living
careless
oblivious to their fragile
fates
we bear the cruel
and their bizarre bursts of sound
their savage tongue
and we are stronger
ready to fight them
we carry some of them
already weakened to their downfall
the shadows are
terrifyingly more visible
and if we no longer know how to hold one another
they will teach us as they touch
before us
where the new lights crisscross
across the room
along the streets that we return to
step by step
on the walls
because the walls are
where they always were
and since we haven't forgotten
how to sing and to dance
that's what we'll do
as we tear them down
or paint them in colours new
Let's go
Lelena Lucas was born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. She's a visual artist, a writer, a choreographer, and manages the dancing school Corpo Escola de Dança.
Sabela Guy studied French and Portuguese and is currently doing a Master’s in History of Art. Her particular interests lie in poetry, photographic literature and the French Impressionist period.