The Dreaming

Untranslatable Song
“Everyone needs one untranslatable song.”
——Juarroz

On hearing the striped contralto of guinea fowl,
its mock opera quivers the parsley atop its head—

The song makes its imprint
in the air, making itself felt,
a felt world. Here, there,
the stunned silence
of knowing I will not remember
what I heard;

futures
that will never happen,
a fluidity we cannot achieve
except as a child
creating possibility.

This is the untranslatable song
hidden in the earth.