Yearning

by Magda Portal (Peru)
translated by Kathleen Weaver

Unfurl for me oh God the far horizons
shake light into the oceans and the winds
I am cast down                      as if pressed
between dark and silence.

I no longer yearn to be moss or ivy
wing light–boned wing is all I am
escaping snaring chains eluding
sorrow’s weight on my frail shoulders.

Naked I walked stripped
the more naked the more free
of that pain by which I knew
that I am one who loves —

I love and expect nothing in return.
My blood irrigates the earth
lifting from each furrow dying then reborn
bearing my lamp across the world.

Let no one see the wound piercing my side
or my hands mauled by wild animals
As long as my heart recalls its song
I’ll go on scattering my star.