Page 24 - January 2021

The Swamps of Yesteryear

Maria do Samei
ro Barroso

Maria do Sameiro Barroso (Portugal) is a multilingual
poet, translator, essayist and researcher in Portuguese
and German Literature, translations studies and History
of Medicine.

I write from a golden age,

as old as childhood,
veiled and mysterious
like a garden of Hesperides.

I never forget about the sick
animals of the night

and the harpoons of stars
waking me up,

but all I can retain is
a stray shadow, sea pebbles,

round glasses of aroma,
velvet orchids, amber rows,
rolling fish, boats,

and islands of myself surviving
among camellias, white doors,

shatters of light,
and demiurge birds flying over

the swamps of yesteryear.

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litterateur 4 january 2021