LANDSCAPE 2

night spread across the fields
and caught by their wings
in a wire trap
birds shrieked piercing the darkness

out of the tree of prickly pear
three barefoot women
emerged treading on the night

the birds wished they were women
the women wished wings

beneath the cactus tree
seven mongol boys
touched the hair between their thighs
and cried for mother to wash them

only the birds seem to protest

(Translation by GRAZIO FALZON)
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