Mere Honor

by Salgado Maranhão.
Translated by Alexis Levitin.

losing my shine, I turned sober.
dry, alone with myself, left-over.
 
a bull, whose flesh is turned to bone.
a fruit whose rind is now its stone.
 
from light to lucidity—already stripped bare
I’ve got my steps but not the way.
 
I no longer need, I no longer care
I’m filled with the nothing of days.