HAPPINESS

As soon as I slept Poet rose up and stood over my body.
He saw me weak and weird with metallic blue toenails

tiny toucan beaks that wanted to fly off into the universe.
I made it out of the window. I stretched out in a treetop to rest.

The stars were inquisitive eyes. I was plankton in a cave I was
a pack of lies I was being somewhere else I was finding answers

Poet craved. I woke up a stranger to my body surrounded by
feather boas reindeer moss a handful of the afterlife.

///

FELICIDADE

Quando adormeci o Poeta levantou-se e ficou de pé no meu corpo.
Viu-me enfraquecido e estranho com unhas azul metálico nas garras

e um pequeno bico de tucano que queria voar para o universo.
Fi-lo pela janela. Estendi-me na copa de uma árvore para descansar.

As estrelas eram olhos inquisitivos. Fui plâncton numa caverna Fui
um monte de mentiras Estive noutro lugar Encontrei as respostas

que o Poeta procurava. Acordei estranhando o meu corpo cercado por
penas macias como musgo num lapso de vida pós-morte.

by Astrid ALBEN (UK), in "THE POETRY REVIEW", Volume 107:3, Autumn 2017

(Portuguese translated by Armando TABORDA, 2017)

(photo taken from Internet; edited by Armando TABORDA)