Sometimes

 

Sometimes the words just pass me by

Don't know the questions or reasons why

Everything seems less colored than yesterday

Please don't run to me, just run away.

Revolution and Ribbons

Break free, little girl,

don’t let them bind ribbons too often.

Your hands should never be restrained,

and don’t let them convince you that it wasn’t terrifying

if your memories are indeed frightening.

Don’t allow them to steal your song or your voice, to tie your hands in knots.

Break free, little girl.

Let the dollhouse await you while you prepare revolutions.

Don’t let them tear apart the clouds,

don’t let them blow on your eyelashes.

Let fathers protect you,

let mothers shield you.

Break free, little girl.

Light a torch and carry your light.

Wherever you go, may everything thrive,

may the essence of your nine lives blossom,

and let wild poppies sprout from your feet,

as vines reach toward the sky from your eyes.

Break free, little girl.

Let both physics and poetry be close to you.

Don’t be convinced that joy is for the superficial;

joy has always saved us—remember, joy.

Not ribbons and bows—

break free, little girl.

Let the fire of life blaze within you.

Au revoir

I say to my despair: Go, take a walk,

I do not have the time to devote my life to you,

after all, I can relieve you of your burden,

avenge myself for all your cruelties,

the choice is yours.

I say to my fear: Go play with others,

I have opened

the iron gates upon my lungs,

and singing birds have entered,

and in a single breath,

I turned you into a stone statue,

I am Medusa with combed hair.

I say to my insomnias: find better pillows,

find vaster darknesses

and a moon that whispers more gently,

I sleep in nests,

I embrace birds,

I always choose crossroads,

look — dawn is breaking again.

I say to my pains: 

you do not possess the flame required for life,

nor eyes, nor heart, nor hands, nor mouth,

and when I move the stone

there are no snakes beneath it,
 

only barren earth —
 

yet from it, flowers will bloom again,

the earth remembers and longs for spring.