A Different Poem by Onésimo Silveira

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The people of the islands want a different poem

For the people of the islands;

A poem without exiles complaining

In the calm of their existence;

A poem without children nourished

On the black milk of aborted time

A poem without mothers gazing

At the vision of their sons, motherless.

The people of the islands want a different poem

For the people of the islands:

A poem without arms in need of work

Nor mouths in need of bread

A poem without boasts ballasted with people

On the road to the South

A poem without words choked

By the harrows of silence.

The people of the islands want a different poem

For the people of the islands:

A poem with sap rising in the heart of the BEGINNING

A poem with Batuque and tchabeta and the badias of St Catherine,

A poem with shaking hips and laughing ivory.

The people of the islands want a different poem

For the people of the islands:

A poem without men who lose the seas’ grace

and the fantasy of the main compass points.