Nakedly Obvious No. 20 - Eduardo Milán

There's a worked void:
from this angle you see a butterfly
that seems to come out of nowhere, fine
that wingbeat corresponds
to a monarch

At this point it's all up for grabs
everything that awaits form — those
clouds, these hands, those mouths
swallowing everything, swallowing the void

So I put it into form, with periods
feelings
things distilling shape of erect flower
pistils

Nobody came by to tell me "look here"
nevertheless

You still pay on the first out of equity
for rights to the void
rights to the void of capitalism
rights to the Right and Left in a democracy

Poets work the terrain of the void
believing in working like oxen
or disbelieving in verse
free trip home

---

Eduardo Milán (born 1952) Uruguay
Translated by John Oliver Simon

Source: Asymptote