inevitable step

 

 

inevitable step

 

 

young tiko’s dreams

scatter to pieces,

hang from the baobab tree,

 

a boom of a thousand drums

in the imagined luanda’s

stadium where tiko’s feet,

swift as birds, chased

a soccer ball of rags

 

gravel, grass and cloth

burrow in tiko’s stump

 

in the boot of europe,

a church-going father

designs devices in explosive

greens and sands, calls

them butterflies, toys gliding

to the ground in the thousands.

his sister quit valsella last

month and greets him with a banner

at the end of the day

 

home at night,

in the undermining silence,

missing another goodnight kiss,

the father clings to his child’s hand

 

tiko’s femur

will continue the earthbound growth

piercing through flesh and skin,

seeking its sole

 

 

excerpt                         ©paulodacosta

from:  footnotes