προγραφές

THE TURTLES

It was in the Pacific.
Off the coast of Nicaragua.
We were out fishing for red snappers
in the blue sea with the blue sky
the sea like blue ink

and suddenly two turtles, coupled
one mounted on the other
making love in the sea
as they had been doing
as they since the beginning of their species
to reproduce their kind
and produce more species and more species
the same act in the sea for millions of years
for love
of the human species
and its fulfilment
communism.
The act that had gone on since the world began.
And I think of Matthew nineteen verse twelve:
And there are those who do not marry
for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, communism -
like a lonely turtle in the middle of the Pacific
like a lonely alone under heaven
wedded to heaven.

Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan New Time, translator: Dinah Livingstone, publisher: Journeyman Press