The defibrillator is a verbal relic Poem by Márcio- André

the defibrillator is a verbal relic
rather than a skeleton's device

time in the word

all that came first moved inside the word
even the cardiac pump and its blood vessels

it's in it that things awake
and then the language-that-doesn't-say
silence
grants to each world its physics

the body stands further than around the spine
the body grants a place to each star that earns a name

[the seagull keeps the sea in its body]

to chew the word
as if chewing a heart
from the valve to the auricles

each word is a shrine
a destiny
a design

Translation: Ana Hudson