Time Flame / Ana Carolina Meira de Souza

I’m on fire

splashes over me like I was thrown in a pool of gasoline

like I went to 1530 and called myself a witch

like I traveled to 1730 and spoke my language

and my skin was burnt and burnt again until I learned the phrase

I’m sorry

so I put myself underground and wish I was somewhere else

and I can speak any language

anywhere

I walk into a paper and look at the time

it’s 2020

I can drive a car and go fast

lights turning

yellow

red

orange

and I see a face

just like mine

on the ground on the ground on the ground

I notice

I’m still on

fire so

 

I hug a house with

one phrase I unleashed

 

burn with me

 

(Image “Proteção extrema contra a dor e o sofrimento I” by  Brazilian artist Roasana Paulino. From 2011, used with permission.)