Excerpt from Mrs. Silva Walks to the Azores
At the end of Parton Lane, where street turns
into one-lane farm road, there grows a patch
of blackberries, vetch, and St. Augustine
where the gutters of the neighborhood drain
into the near reach of fields stretching
to the sand dunes that block the flood of sea,
keeping salt from the bottomland soil.
Harder each time to move her thoughts from dunes
and the sea she hears on the other side,
groaning and hissing in the morning fog,
rumble-roar-crashing in afternoon wind;
she does not know what else might lie beyond
the shore, but her mind sees a place she feels
she knows—though she has never been—
from stories, her bones, her voice and her name
and she wonders, Why turn around at all?
She lifts her eyes from ground to sky. The dune
horizon grows to a looming mountain
range above the sea, volcanic islands,
green slopes alive with people she once knew,
though she cannot remember their names.
Excerpt from A Sra. Silva Caminha para os Açores
Cada dia, aqui no meio de sua caminhada,
onde a rua se torna esburacada e arbustos
dominam as beiras, ela para pra lembrar
como que se dá meia volta, quais considerações
precisam ser feitas em sua mente, focada
nos horizontes e com os pés no chão.
Neste dia, suas pernas iriam rebelar, recusar?
Cada vez mais difícil distanciar seus pensamentos das dunas
e do mar que ela ouve do outro lado,
gemendo e sibilando na névoa da manhã,
estrondo rugindo eclodindo em um vento vespertino;
Ela não sabe o que mais pode existir além
da costa, mas sua mente vê um lugar que ela sente
que conhece—embora nunca tenha estado lá—
através de histórias, seus ossos, sua voz e seu nome
se perguntam, Por que se virar afinal? Ela levanta os olhos
do chão para o céu. A linha do horizonte das dunas
cresce até se tornar uma cadeia de montanhas
imponentes acima do mar, ilhas vulcânicas,
encostas verdes cintilantes com pessoas que ela conhecia antes,
embora ela não consiga lembrar seus nomes.
This is canto #6 from the chapbook Mrs. Silva Walks to the Azores: A Story in Ten Cantos / A Sra. Silva caminha para os Açores Uma História em Dez Cantos by Michael Bickford – Translated by Bruna Dantas Lobato (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/mrs-silva-walks-to-the-azores-a-story-in-ten-cantos-a-sra-silva-caminha-para-os-acores-uma-historia-em-dez-cantos-by-michael-bickford-translated-by-bruna-dantas-lobato/
In her daily walks through the neighborhood, struggling with the limitations of her aging body, Mrs. Silva becomes the immigrant spirit of the Azores, of Portuguese, of America. Her quotidian courage to endure, to rise above, reflects the heroism of women everywhere. With inspiring dignity, Mrs. Silva’s personal journey to the end of the lane, to the end of Portuguese diaspora, becomes a passage to the edge of the western continent, to the edge of history.
Michael Bickford writes poetry and fiction on California’s Redwood Coast. He is a fellow of the Redwood Writing Project, and a founding member of Lost Coast Writers Community. His work has appeared in Toyon, Abandoned Mine, Fauxmoir, Seven Gill Shark Review, Ink People Center for the Arts, The /tEmz/ Review, and Neologism Poetry Review.
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