LIKE A THREAD OF LIGHT, I BIND MYSELF TO YOU
By Maria Teresa Liuzzo
The path of cruelty found no peace,
dragged along by the congestion of the abyss.
A lightning bolt carried the geranium into the light,
and its soul became a hurricane.
It sought refuge in the limbo of the past,
where the human genome eluded all artifices,
and pain was left voiceless.
Your thought will be my love,
alive like coral in my veins.
We loved each other in boundless skies,
amid the hesitation of your desires,
even though we never met.
The sword joyfully opens the book,
as prophecy decrees, your name burns.
Of this clenched heart,
the ear strains,
in the final kiss,
crimson with dew.
Like a thread of light,
I bind myself to you.
Hold it,
like a seed in your hand.
Let me go…
Night will be a lantern of pupils, a humble companion,
in its breath the spirit will find peace.
Death purifies us,
and pity makes us happy.
Do not fear—tenacious is the root,
and from it, my Cross has blossomed.
I see you through the mist,
through the darkness that came to swallow me.
You appear to me, a sleeping sailor,
anchored spitefully to a star,
while I am a siren, chained to a shadow
of your chest.
Let me go…
Condemned to death,
I remain in the room as I once did,
a long-suffered time.
I will always be your naked soul,
and every night I will be by your side,
tucking you in, as one does for a child.
If my lips brush against your forehead,
like a sail or a snare,
my kisses will be bitter,
and your roses mere abstractions on canvas.
I still dream of you,
of that which never dies—
© Maria Teresa Liuzzo
Translation by Rasim Maslic
