Sibyls Poem by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

Sibyls inside adamantine caves,
Totally loveless and blind.
Feeding emptiness like a sacred fire
While shadow dissolves night and day
Into the same light of bodiless horror.

Bring out here that monstrous dew
Of interior nights, the sweat
Of powers tied to themselves
When words strike the walls
In blind swoops of trapped birds
And the horror of having wings
Screeches like a clock in the void.

Translation: 2004, Richard Zenith