Most Carnival celebrations in Brazil were canceled for a second year in a row in 2022 due to the resurgence of COVID-19. This poem, which I wrote during Carnival preparations in the tropical city of Manaus many years prior, was recently published by Sapiens for the first time.
The Cosmic Serpent:
I am bit by a copy of a key
fitting the lock
of a door ajar
a melon wedge
of moon lent
as a blessing by a sultry sun
upon slick yearning bodies
below
I fit snug in this body of nails
teeth hard things animate
in a herd of elbows
with eyes
snapping in recoil from
pain slave to pleasure
shuddering at the pinwheel
sky
I am hunger
in ebbs and flows
hormonal despot over the senses
one more consumer
lusting a wake
through this world
this mad race before the door
catches
I am bit by a copy
of a copy of a key
a lock of helical hair
a serpent eating its tail
beneath the spiraling galaxies
wondering what is
why where is my sharp-toothed
love?
-----
Read the story behind this poem at Sapiens
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