DIMITRIS LEOTZAKOS

[My sleep is a vowel]

My sleep is a vowel
Sibilant in the grasses
A giant silent insect
A chariot in mid flight
Flagged by felines
Pathways
Sea elephants
And other mythical mammals follow
The march gains momentum
Until dawn calls to us
Asia
We are made welcome by herons
− I recollect no thing, my forgetfulness is torrential −
And I awake

( Translated by Konstantine Matsoukas )

[We are a kind of leaf-spouting tree]

We are a kind of leaf-spouting tree
Interlaced with smoke tendrils black fogs
Savanna grasses perennial plumes
With verdant leaves thick trunks
We blossom in eerie mountains and in drops
And we are shanties built out of horrid shrieks
− like lightning in night’s interior −
We are thinly roofed
Suspended cloud formations
And endless words
And a rain that seeps through it all
Strangely
Unaccountable and persistent
A rain that we call mother
That calls to us
That we call Africa

( Translated by Konstantine Matsoukas )

[ Riders on the irrational l]

Riders on the irrational
− like deadly horsemen −
The gold will sparkle
And the silver of the lions of the night
And we shall enter the open country
The city
And we shall enter and mount the night
Bearing unorthodox gifts
Birds with blue hues
Refined mammal songs
Cages fashioned from the torsos of killer whales
The visions of yodeling snakes
Interlaced with cedar trees
Labyrinthine costumes of those who met out punishment
Sheer lakeshores for our crown
And torrential rivers will come
They will sprinkle water on our hair
The rose petals of young girls
And the words of automatic rifles
The barrage of verbs
And at a slant the dawn will arrive
− of painters! −
With darkness upon her lips
We will be gently sliced by her shining blades
− the youthful vivisectors of tissues −
So that the body may rise
So that we may bloom in blood

( Translated by Konstantine Matsoukas )