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I.
how do flowers undress?
what do their fruits desire?
II.
the flower plays charm-perfume-skin
for beetles, bees, birds.
asking for caress—
give my embrace
to the girl-flower beside me.
III.
in what manner
do your seeds
rearrange themselves,
oh fruit?
how did you choose
between a bright shell or a rough one?
answer me, oh fruit
how do you decide if it is waters,
winds, a fall,
beasts or soil
that will carry
to the other shore
your message?
or will it be you
to cast into the world
your language,
in the rhythm of
a friar’s kiss?
IV.
the fruit told me
last night
in the floodplain
that what it longs for
are scattered ellipses.
the persimmon lodged a pit
in the collarbones
threw it into the waters,
counted three leaps
before the seed
learned to dive.
and upon learning to sink,
it fecundated.
V.
this morning
we lit incense
of myrrh
the tangerine flower
hurled its orange
upon our bodies,
resurrected us
through its seeds.
it discovered the language
of ocean bubbles
we carry
in the pleura,
nourished our pirás.
it was swallowed by
our throat,
ingested by the
glottis of the earth.
VI.
affection lingered
as pollen
floated
the caress throws
into body-language
three silence-seeds,
eager to sprout.
in stillness they break
their dormancy,
return to the smile
of the minnows.
VII.
after sucking the mango,
we planted the
resurrection of the fruit
through the flesh.
VIII.
listen to the counsel
of spiders,
lay your snare
upon the plants,
capture the miracles
you will carry to your mouth.
IX.
if you do not know how to dance forró
with the wind,
probe your own sound,
play at jabuticaba,
mineral bound to rind,
purple like potions.
play at jabuticaba,
spread your fruits
with bees,
spread your fruits
also in solitude.
X.
phenomenology is simple, difficult is the jatobá.
XI.
and when you see the Dry Forest smiling
you will know that the miracle
is also in the thorns.
XII.
sit beneath the shade
of a pequi tree.
break your shell.
do not bite the fruit.
gnaw the pequi.
sit beneath
the shade of the seed.
XIII.
wait, oh fruit.
await our bodies.
they will serve as fertilizer
for your children,
it will be the vertebra
of your macaúba
the spirit of your
mucilaginous pits.
Translated by Gerayma Osório
