’til soon

--Paulo Leminski (trans. Elisa Wouk Almino) 

Even you, raw matter,

even you, lumber, mass and muscle,

vodka, liver and chuckle,

candlelight, paper, coal and cloud,

stone, avocado meat, falling rain,

nail, mountain, hot-press iron,

even you feel saudade,

first-degree burn,

a longing to return home? 

Clay, sponge, marble, rubber,

cement, steel, glass, vapor, cloth and cartilage,

paint, ash, eggshell, grain of sand,

first day of autumn, the word spring,

number five, the slap in the face, a rich rhyme,

a new life, middle age, old strength,

even you, matter my dear,

remember when we were only a mere idea?

[via asymptote]