Tanner Andrade

To know what this breath
might be: whether of earth
or air moved
already by mutable metals
along the lines of the hills.
How this shadow
propogates and gradually
grows graphic
withthe sound
of mines and ether; or
to have drawn the horizon
with its most volatile
line: to see only
the paint as it evaporates.
There is no other
record, just sections
of this one. Thus it floats along;
calculation and chance; the whitewash
of the houses tense still
above
the spongy dusk.

Carlos De Oliveira, Brazilian ( 1921 - 1981 )

Controlled Burn: A Northwoods Literary Journal. 8 (Dec. 2002): p106