Poem of the day: Translations

Michael Dickman

Translations

My mother was led into the world
by her teeth

Pulled
like a bull
into the
heather

She only ever wanted to be a mother her whole life and
nothing else, not even a human being!

One body turned into
another body

Pulled like that
by the golden voices of children

A bull
out of hell

Called out
her teeth out in front of her
her children
pulling

*

First I walk my mother out
into the field
by a leash
by a lifetime
then she walks me out
our coats
shimmering

I brush her hair

Wipe the flies away from her eyes

They are my eyes

Who will ride my mother
when we aren't around
anymore?

Her children won't

Turned from one thing into another until you are a bull
standing in a field

The field just beginning
to whistle us
home

*

Then I am led by the mouth
out into the yellow
field

The light turning to water in the early evening, the insects
dying in the cold and coming back in the morning

Something has to come back

Wings and
shit

I have put on my horse-head

Led by a bit

A lead

My leader is tall and the hair on her forearms is gold

It is a miracle
to lower your eyes
into the tall grass
and eat