The Ship Of Mirrors

by

Mario Cesariny de Vasconcelos



The ship of mirrors

doesn’t sail, it gallops


Its sea is a forest

serving as level plane


At dusk its flanks

mirror the sun and moon


That’s why time loves

to lie down with it


Shipowners don’t like

its clear and bright route

(To someone who's moving

it looks stationary)


When it reaches the city

no wharf gives it shelter


Its bilge brings nothing

it departs with nothing


Voices and heavy air

are all it transports


And a kind of door

in its mirrored mast


Its ten thousand captains

all have the same face


The same dark belt

the same rank and office


When one man revolts

there are ten thousand mutineers


(The way objects are reflected

in the eyes of a fly)


And when one of them ascends

and his body climbs the masts

and he scans the depths of the ocean


The whole ship gallops

(like the stars up in space)


From the world’s beginning

to its end



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