AIMÉ CÉSAIRE

"Word"
____________________

                                                Among me

from myself
to myself
outside any constellation 
clenched in my hands only

the rare hiccup of an ultimate raving spasm 
my face lost your face distraught
fused together intimate confused
every glistening thing every lapping thing 
between our bodies rocked by shipwreck
in the surge or the wind that the wave carries back 
flesh

          backlit

                              as a sandbar

                                                           burst

keep vibrating word

                              I will have luck outside the labyrinth

longer wider keep vibrating 
in tighter and tighter waves

in a lasso to catch me 
in a rope to hang me
in a rainbow
in a bow of rain
and let me be nailed by all the arrows
and their bitterest curare
to the beautiful center* pole of very cool stars

vibrate
vibrate you very essence of the dark
in a wing in a throat from so much perishing 

Translated by A. James Arnold and Clayton Eshleman