Outros, o melhor de mim sou eles - as O BANDO, a collaboration with Denise de Lello Courtouké, Alexandre Magno Manso and La Tintota - São Paulo - July - October 2011
Dedicated to the celebrated Brazilian poet Manoel de Barros:
Invented Memoir II
My mother gave me a river.
It was my birthday and she didn't know what to give.
It had been a while since the peddler came by that forgotten place.
If the peddler had come by she would've bought candy or a tin of cookies.
But the peddler didn't come by so I got the river.
The same river that had always passed behind our house.
I liked the gift more than if it had been candy from the peddler.
My brother pouted, he liked the river as well.
Our mother promised him he'd get a tree for his birthday.
A tree covered in birds.
I heard this promise and thought it was fine.
The birds would spend the day on the banks of my river.
At night, they'd sleep in my brother's tree.
My brother teased that his present got flowers in September.
And a river doesn't get flowers!
I told him a tree doesn't get piranhas.
What united us was swimming naked in the river with the herons.
In this regard, our life was a caress.
(translated by Idra Novey, from Birds for a Demolition)
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