Triste Tropico Page #3

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Dr. Arthur, seeing something so noble

as the darkening of the sun

against every natural order, explained:

Either God is delusional,

or the world machine is crumbling.

Late in May,

the symptoms reaches their apex.

Visual disturbances, the so-called

'scintillating scotomatas'

Retention of urine for 24 hours.

Blood from the nose and gums.

A voice tells him:

Defend yourself,

or you'll be annihilated.

Amazing growth of hair.

Psychical excitation, resulting

sometimes, in intense erotic delirium.

When detained at home

he rips all nearby objects.

Frequent bouts of self-mutilation,

trying to bite his own buttocks,

where, he said,

the harmful virus was inoculated.

Some men have to listen carefully

although things still don't make sense.

It is unique characters,

like Dr. Joo de Laparilla Duque

author of

The Warnings of Mrs. Truth

Gaspar Barata de Mendona,

expert on rituals of mummification

Elesbo das Chagas

Corroded by ideas

and blue-blooded worms

Plutarco Benimou, mystic,

small industrialist.

On July 10 arises the turning point.

At midday

Dr. Artur was inspecting the village

with his movie camera

amid hallucinations

of Euclides da Cunha.

Beasts wrapped in bloody bandages,

broken arms in slings

crooked legs, feet deformed

by swelling, pierced with thorns,

breasts sewn with bullets or

knitted with knives.

All the traumas and all the miseries.

At five in the afternoon

It was just five in the afternoon.

A boy brought the white sheet

at five in the afternoon.

A basket of lime made ready

at five in the afternoon.

The rest was death and only death

at five in the afternoon.

The wind blew the cotton wool away

at five in the afternoon.

And oxide scattered nickel and glass

at five in the afternoon.

Now the dove and the leopard fight

at five in the afternoon.

And a thigh with a desolate horn

at five in the afternoon.

The bass-pipe sound began

at five in the afternoon.

The bells of arsenic, the smoke

at five in the afternoon.

Silent crowds on corners

at five in the afternoon.

And only the bull with risen heart!

at five in the afternoon.

When the snow-sweat appeared

at five in the afternoon.

when the arena was splashed with iodine

at five in the afternoon.

death laid its eggs in the wound

at five in the afternoon.

At five in the afternoon.

At just five in the afternoon.

A coffin on wheels for his bed

at five in the afternoon.

Bones and flutes sound in his ear

at five in the afternoon.

Now the bull bellows on his brow

at five in the afternoon.

The room glows with agony

at five in the afternoon.

Now out of distance gangrene comes

at five in the afternoon.

Wounds burning like suns

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