The Poems

' Os Poemas '

Poems are birds that come

from places unknown and land

on the book you read.

Once you've closed the book, they fly up

as if from a trapdoor.

They do not have perch

nor port

they feed on each pair of hands for an instant

and leave.

And you look, then, at your empty hands,

in the mesmerized awe of knowing

that their food was already in you...

- Mário Quintana