Savages by Caridad Svich

Savages

(April 2011)

By Caridad Svich

Salvage all,

Save this I keep for you –

Bitter worn

empty,

yet full of longing

(For another life led

In mystery).

Savage this,

I made for you,

For it will not be here

Much longer.

Torn in pieces long,

In remnants passed

From one hand to another

Liquid, porous –

It awakens every ounce of desire

In my palm.

How could I know you’d leave this

Unknown, strange sensation

Of melancholy?

Rooted in despair

Yet exhilarated

By it,

I’m anxious to relive

Some aspect of damage,

That I never knew

I craved.

It was this you opened

In my consciousness:

Radiant light

Streaming through the eye,

Beam of desire pulsing

Through some vague memory

Once erased from my mind –

Blurry substance of fire

Burn of angels lost

In their own reverie,

What solid thing holds us to earth

And jettisons hope

Of the everlasting fear of loss?

I will learn what it is to let go

Of everything

And in so doing

Rob you

Of your longed-for destiny.

It is here

We make ourselves.

In this light

Burnished

Replicated by a thousand desires

Shaped by destinies

Of those bereft

Of their citizenry.

Damascus ancient

Weaves dark spells

Of enchantment over the land.

A blue wall

A cigarette in the mouth

A scarf on your head

And tired hands rest

Along a wall

And think about a gun once held.

Eyes once witnessed in agony:

Another life.

Another time;

Not me,

Not now,

In end days.

Soon another will be mourned

Along the road.

No words anymore

But smoke,

A look at the sun,

And a cradling of a forgotten gun.

Memories of battles waged –

Old songs of glories and praise.

Hymns for those who have shed blood,

Forgotten names who’ve left their mark

Upon the land.

Pity them, I say

But pity too the sun burnt who stand

Held in fear

Awakened eternally by disparities

Leveled by civilization

Sorry earth,

Forgive us all our trespasses

And when we blight your stones,

And rock dirt blooms,

Be kind.


News: Caridad Svich is now Drama Editor of ASYMPTOTE JOURNAL

The April issue of ASYMPTOTE, just out, features new translations of José Saramago, Ingrid Winterbach, Torgny Lindgren and Imre Kertész, a dispatch from post-quake Japan, a memoir from Cuba, poems by Fernando Pessoa, Cesar Vallejo and Max Lichtenstein, drama by Han Lao Da, new original English language work by Bharati Mukherjee, Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé and Justin Taylor, essays on Jean-Christophe Valtat and Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, the photos of Yevgeniy Fiks offering an alternate history of Moscow, a Q&A with Taiwanese video artist Chia-En Jao, an interview with noted translation scholar Susan Bassnett and more. Also in ASYMPTOTE are critical essays, and reviews of the latest books. All of it is available free online at our aesthetically exciting website, where we post not only the translated texts, but also, when available, the works in their original languages, audio recordings of those originals, and accompanying artwork specially curated for each issue.

Asymptote Issue Two is available now, by clicking here: http://asymptotejournal.com