Alma Desatada
A serração desceu rápida e do-í-da.
Veio duma latência em rodeios Açorianos.
Solitário rochedo, suspenso em fosca água-lusa.
Longe, o coro das oliveiras ao léu.
Açores! Por quem te desatei as naus um dia…
Volátil, irado, vulcanizado.
Mouro-Sefardita dum Ilhéu.
Memória coletiva?
Civilidade incongruente.
Sentimentos de força plena
os tragos dos mapas náuticos.
Mar d’olhos de jade,
estrelas fincadas no anil.
Um peito mestiço
apanhado de rochas,
Beijado por sal atlântico.
Unmoored Soul
The haziness reeled
Swiftly and pain-fully.
The fog quivered within
A latent Azorean discomfort.
The filmy Luso-waves
Enclosed a solitary rock afloat—
Far afield from the olive chorus,
At the whim of fate.
Azores! to whom
I unmoored the vessels one day…
Volatile, mad, volcanized,
Moor-Sephardi from some Islet…
Collective memory?
Incongruent civility.
Feelings in full force,
I carry on from nautical charts.
The sea, emerald eyes,
Stars staked on laundry bluing,
A mestizo chest
Beaten by a handful of rocks
And kissed by Atlantic salt.
Roseangelina Baptista is an American-Brazilian based in Central Florida. She is a bilingual freelance writer with interests in promoting poetry and mindfulness for society and in reviving Indo-Portuguese literature. Her poetry first appeared in the Joao Roque Literary Journal (June 2019) and Adelaide Literary Magazine (November 2019 and February 2020), other works were contributions to local anthologies (2020.)