I gave your gold in trade for tangerines,
three tangerines, to give the dark-eyed girl
who, laughing, took my hand and led me out
away from tents and lanterns toward the trees
that rise above our sleepy railroad town.
By moonlight, in the meadow, where we lay,
I peeled, in long, slow spirals, with her knife
and slipped them, piece by piece, between her teeth.
At dawn, the grass was wet, and she was gone.
The sun glared lividly behind the clouds
and from his face
the blastincinerated me from space and time.
No sound exists, except the glint of glass.
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Samantha Pious is a translator, poet, editor, and medievalist. Her translations of Renée Vivien are available as A Crown of Violets (Headmistress Press, 2017); her translations of Christine de Pizan are forthcoming. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania.
