Forests.

Cluny, Claude Michel

Forests

 The noise of ceaseless mastication:
 vegetal, patient, and secular--
 protracted violence, reptilian embraces,
 petals and talons--a flowering so
 obscure, insatiable, and sure of itself
 that it will efface from walls and days
 the trace of bloodgames and heavenly bodies
 will unknot the limbs of gods
 will take hold of temple terraces
 will blind with sap all masked eyes
 except those of the jaguar and lynx
 will absorb the rooms
 and voices of men--
 even the pith of painted memories
 of those majestic sacred cities.

Tikal *

Forets

 Bruit la souveraine manducation
 vegetale patiente et seculaire--
 violences lentes embrassements reptiles
 petales et griffes--floraison
 obscure insatiable et si sure d'elle
 qu'elle effacera les murs et les jours
 la trace des jeux du sang et des astres
 qu'elle denouera les membres des dieux
 s'emparera des terrasses des temples
 qu'elle aveuglera de seve les yeux
 des masques sauf du jaguar et du lynx
 qu'elle absorbera les chambres
 et la parole des hommes
 meme les sucs de la memoire peinte
 des grandes cites sacrees.

Tikal

* Tulum, Uxmal, and Chichen Itza--all Mayan cities located in the Yucatan Peninsula--are famous for their architectural ruins from the Late and Post Classic periods (700-1200 A.D.). Tikal, another ancient Mayan city in northern Guatemala, thrived from 800 B.C. to 900 A.D. [DS]

Sources: "Colorado" (1989), from Oeuvre poetique, vol. 1 (La Difference, 1991), 60. Copyright [c] 1991 by Editions de la Difference. Extracts from "La Memoire du sel," Autre Sud 26 (Sept. 2004), 22-23. Copyright [c] 2004 by Claude Michel Cluny, Autre Sud, and Editions Autre Temps.