Our scribbles gave the mother a visible body
Vénus Khoury-Ghata
Translated from the French by Marilyn Hacker
her menses hidden behind the page
and the watercolor blood serving for mouth and pubis
Nourishing mother
slit in the middle like a skittish goat’s hoof
breasts drunk backwards when the inkwell dried up
We turned the sketch against the wall when she set her mute back against us
her face questioned the plaster
staring at itself
Why did she multiply trees and children?
Why did she set fire to the nest of the lark that saw her naked?
And why did we sleep head-to-foot with the unfriendly cypress when the all the
linden’s ardor was for us?
Mother between two roadways and two shutter-latches
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