by Sara F. Costa

CHINESE INK ON CORK PAPER

There is a place of delirium inside me
like a neon chrysanthemum.
The streets have a contemporary turbulence
from the skin of the sea.
A Filipino man touches me on the shoulder.
In his eyes, a breath of abyss.
But inside me there is still no language:
nor pictographic blood,
nor almost correct Portuguese.
I wander among the neon constellations
and its cinematographic mystery fills me with meaning.
The urban landscape describes the night inside me
like a painting suspended between two continents,
Chinese ink on cork paper.

GREY OCTOBER OVER MY THOUGHTS

The dance floor pushes the moon out of the book
all the sleep is hanging on the edges of the night
digging the land where the animals sleep.
Let me exaggerate this silence until it symbolises God.
The blood of clay fused my nakedness with words.
Tonight, I dream of a casino that could save me.
The thoughts burn furiously at your white breasts
like a grey October over my thoughts.
I open my arms to receive the chaotic beauty of this peninsula
I belong to life and life belongs to the poem.

Sara F. Costa is a Portuguese poet. She won several literary prizes in Portugal and has published five poetry collections. She has an MA in Intercultural Studies: Portuguese/Chinese from Tianjin Foreign Studies University. She was an invited author of the International Istanbul Poetry Festival in 2017, and in 2018 she worked on The Script Road-Macau Literary Festival and China-European Union Literary Festival in Shanghai and Suzhou. Her works have been featured in literary journals and magazines all across the world from Brazil to China. Sara is currently living in Beijing and she coordinates events for the Spittoon Beijing Based Arts Collective.