Two Poems
Raquel Lima
I open one more drawer
I open one more drawer
searching for hidden answers
about my incomplete existence
and in the arduous task
of putting pieces together
of a fragmented puzzle
shattered by cold water
in different corners of the world
I have no sense as a guide
I don’t see
I don’t touch
I don’t hear
I don’t smell
nor taste the truth that I lack
So I open one more drawer
looking for a sense
in the circular shape of orature
because tradition is not only made of books
photos and untranslated words
languages that I do not know
struggles for persisting
victories I did not dream of
failures and dementia
I have present absence
at the bottom of the same drawer
the other side of the ocean
wounds in living flesh
strength and fear in the bloom of fused skins
then I open one more drawer
and I have seeds with scars
it is no longer enough to have wings that fly
it is necessary to have wings with roots
‘L’ of Life
I have the ‘L’ of Life waiting
I’m in the eve
I’m waiting for you
that everything will be
perfect
body
home
body
music
body
conversation
body
inside and outside
body
near and far
that everything is
perfect
until the waiting is over
everything is possible utopia
cruel expectation
maybe that’s what love is
ephemeral movement
where nothing is imperfect
because
the possibility
of movement
is
in itself
perfect
I relax
I assume the new condition
of simply being
free in waiting
free in the eve
free in life
free the ‘L’ of Life
and be just ife.
Raquel Lima is a poet, performer and art educator, who graduated in Artistic Studies at the University of Lisbon and is a doctoral candidate in Post-Colonial Studies at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, with her research focused on Orature, Slavery, and Afrodiasporic movements. She released her first book and audio-book of poetry entitled Ingenuidade Inocência Ignorância (BOCA and Animal Sentimental) in October 2019 and has presented her poetic work in artistic events in Europe, South America, and Africa. She has published her poetry in several languages as a spoken word performance artist and has been organising poetry workshops. She co-coordinated the seventh Afro-Europeans Conference: “Black In/Visibilities Contested” and was part of the anthology Kontinentaldrift: Das Schwarze Europa organised by Fiston Mwanza Mujila. She is part of UNA – União Negra das Artes (Black Union for the Arts).
*Image by Matteo Minoglio on Unsplash
