blackbirdonline journalSpring 2019  Vol. 18 No. 1
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an online journal of literature and the arts
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translation from Swedish by Patty Crane

The Boat—The Village

A Portuguese fishing boat, blue, its wake rolling up the Atlantic a bit.
A blue point far out, and yet I’m there—the six onboard don’t notice we are seven.

I saw a boat like this being built, laying like a huge lute without strings
in the barren ravine: the village where they wash and wash in rage, patience, melancholy.

Dark with people on the beach. A meeting was breaking up, the loudspeakers were carried off.
Soldiers led the orator’s Mercedes through the crowd, words beating against the metal sides.  


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