(scurt) vers 10, Excilia Saldaña

[...]

In what place do I rise up or sink down

with full lungs,

with open bronchia,

with the full freedom

of being and not dying? 

Not in this human body. [...]

Mother of future messiahs [...]

The oregano plant humbly perfumes the hand of the one who breaks it. 

A child laughs and he hands me the leaf.

And I smell it.

And I give it for him to smell.

And he laughs.

I have a womb of birds

because I've given myself to the world

in the joy of the earth.

Grow quickly,

breast of my son;

harden,

hand of my son;

get strong,

back of my son;

rise up at once,

height of my son;

my name awaits you. [...]

from My Name: A Family Anti-Elegy by Excilia Saldana (trans. by Flora Mandri and Rosamond Rosenmeir)