snug in the wood, in the crumbling soil, in these structures
your speech
: it broke into pieces
you’ve become all bone, better a knife1
against the abyss these horizontal stands
grounds then, earth
dirt, above all else
or describe the land, this land where we keep on speaking the same language together2, where nothing else counts
surely something must have remained there
how else could earth be stepped on, what earth then and who lies in it
when day falls, to find myself here
to redeem myself here

now
I am your daughter, your occasion
your variation
now I am your stain
or the stain of your footsteps, of your earth
am your tongue
and the image you’re looking at
I am the lines you can write but not hope
I am your endless reaching for the past and your
scorched snow
your hours, the blood that you force from your veins, your
upstream, your secret accountability, your eye for an eye, your splinter
I am the target you missed, am your body’s injuries
I am all the grand words and the betrayal
the wrangling, the thoughts of air, of disgrace
two bridges, two birds
I am your riches, your madness, again and again
the child you love
the woman you despise
the hound by your hand
now
I am alive
and burn as life sometimes burns
knock out all my bones, my pleas, caged like a heart carried inside my ribs
star, you say
and for its sake I fall, I hurl myself, even, with everything I have
river water
but you know: no water here

 

 

Translation Annie Rutherford