Anticipation

Image Source, (Unsplash)

Before writing a poem

You must vacuum the tapestry,

clean the wine stain from off the counter,

organize the words from the bookshelf

of ideas.

It takes dexterity, precision, tact.

Knowing out to handle a double-edged sword.

Before writing a poem you must unlearn

language

on a Sunday afternoon.

You must rearrange the kitchen dishes,

to feel the emptiness,

the whiteness,

to then fill it with soul, skin, wording.

Before writing this poem

it already existed in the spaces

occupied by my silence.

It existed before this rainy day.

I ask if you believe in fate,

I follow the sunbeams that cross

the arms of a tree

and reflect the golden of your hair.

And I wonder if this poem, this one,

would be placed in the section “of love” or “of observation”

from a book I never wrote, never planned

but which I know has always existed.

by Lavínia Vianini

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Lavínia is a 25 year-old poet, translator and teacher. With a Bachelor's degree in English/Portuguese, her Academic research focused on poetry written by women, which later allowed her to be offered a scholarship in Comparative Literature.

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